Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday in question time the Prime Minister said:

The problem with the GST … is that it affects households with lower incomes … because they will spend a larger proportion of their income on goods and services that are subject to the GST.

Given that the Prime Minister will not rule out increasing the GST, will the Prime Minister please explain exactly what items will increase in price by 15 per cent, what compensation will be provided, and to whom?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my right will cease interjecting. The member for Grey!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yet again it is Groundhog Day in the House of Representatives as far as the opposition is concerned. The opposition continues to assert that the government has a policy which it does not have. Since March we have been engaged in a national discussion about the economy, about tax reform, and the opposition asked us a question about a policy which it asserts we have when in fact it knows we do not have it.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rule it out.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Watson, unchastened by yesterday's catastrophe, calls out, 'Rule it out.' He is coming back for more. He is so resilient. I believe Australia should be a resilient modern economy, and I give the member for Watson that: he is resilient at least.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And agile.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, however, he is not very agile, and he is certainly not very enterprising, because if he were more enterprising he would be able to come up with some better questions.

The simple fact of the matter is this: our government is focused on growth. We are focused on jobs. We are focused on ensuring that our economy enables our people and their businesses to achieve all that they seek, to take advantage of the greatest opportunities that have ever been available to us, due in no small measure to the extraordinary efforts of the Minister for Trade and Investment, who is now back in the parliament, the hero of international trade negotiations. He has flung open the doors of the biggest markets in East Asia. He has negotiated, and the parliament has approved—there was a scare campaign run against the ChAFTA; that seemed to subside, and I am glad it has subsided. It was, like most of the opposition leader's scare campaigns, not particularly scary, but nonetheless it was intended to scare. I have to say I know his friends spent a lot of money on advertising, and it was very misleading, but at least it is money they cannot spend trying to get him elected Prime Minister, so that is one thing to be said for it.

What we have now are the greatest opportunities ever available to us, and the question for us—for all of us—is: what can we do to make the tax system raise the money we need but work better to support Australian businesses? That is the discussion we are having. We had a lot of talk about it yesterday. I gave some good answers, I think, in explanation. They were not even listened to by the opposition, but we will keep going at it. The opposition should not worry about that. We are committed to growth and to jobs and to a stronger Australia.

Ms Butler interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith is warned.