Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House the importance of strong leadership in generating jobs, growth and confidence? What action is the government taking to secure our prosperity?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I recall very recently visiting his electorate and those of his colleagues, the other two of the 'three amigos' in Tasmania, and seeing the extraordinary optimism in Tasmania about the opportunities given by these free trade agreements. I can say that every sinew of this government is working as hard as it can to deliver a stronger and more prosperous future. We are not interested in reform for reform's sake. With all due respect to the member for Fraser, we are not interested in getting the plaudits of economics professors. What we want to see is jobs. We want to see exports. We want to see investment. We want to see confidence. We want to see businesses proud to be Australian and convinced that their government is getting on with the job.

Can I say there is clearly a growing sense of optimism in the land today. Today's Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence shows that for the first time since May optimists outnumber pessimists. Consumers are becoming more optimistic about their future conditions, and that is good. The Australian Institute of Company Directors has also reported today on a two-year high for positive sentiment.

So the confidence in the government is being reflected in the confidence in the economy. That will result in jobs, it results in investment and it results in a stronger economy. For the sake of the Treasurer, I can say that a stronger economy will result in stronger revenues to deal with the deficit we inherited from the Leader of the Opposition and his friends from when they were in government.

I will be leaving tomorrow for overseas. I will be leaving for the G20 summit in Turkey. That is obviously the meeting of the world's 20 largest economies. The focus of the G20—led by the outstanding leadership of the former Treasurer, Mr Hockey, in 2014—was on growth. Since the Brisbane summit there have been stronger headwinds in the global economy. The OECD, as honourable members would know, because I am sure they all read the OECD reports very carefully—

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You gave a press conference saying he was hopeless!

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

I know my friend over here does.

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

The member for Rankin will cease interjecting!

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

I am trying to move you up. There is a real risk that one day, when you are as old as me, you might get back into government. We want you closer there, because at least you can add up and you could, at some point, revisit the rationality of your youth and come back. Growth and prosperity—that is our focus.

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. When he was the opposition leader he criticised the then Prime Minister as follows:

Mr Rudd could have put that to rest and said, 'No, there won't be any new taxes on the family home.' But he has not ruled that out, so that is a legitimate concern.

In the interests of holding the Prime Minister to his own standards, since the Prime Minister will not rule out increasing the GST to 15 per cent, why will he not answer the legitimate concerns of millions of Australian families?

Mr Champion interjecting—

Mr Husic interjecting—

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

It is very important, as you get older and as you move from job to job in this place, to learn something. I have to tell you: the rule in, rule out politics are for yesterday. That was yesterday. It was as unproductive when I was asking your side to rule in or rule out as it is when you are asking me to rule in or rule out. The truth of the matter is that you know as well as I do that you could be—or the honourable member could be—engaging in a debate about growth. I assume that everybody in this chamber wants our grandchildren and our children to have better jobs and greater opportunities. We want our economy to grow. Are we not all on board for that objective? You would think so.

We are seeking to do that and we have a lot of measures for it. I have mentioned the free trade agreements. We will be releasing very shortly—in a few weeks, in fact—an innovation statement that will drive stronger innovation. We recognise that the tax and savings and transfer system is very complex. It is absolutely very complex. And so we initiated in March a discussion about that. We talked about the merits of different taxes—how some of them put more of a brake on the economy than others and how some of them have been overtaken by technology and need to be amended.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are a Prime Minister, not a professor!

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

These are all very valid issues. We sought, for example, to address the base erosion and profit-shifting problem both locally, through the measures to deal with the digital economy, and internationally, through the work at the G20 and through the OECD.

In the course of that work we have confronted these issues rationally and we have talked about them, seeking to inform the debate. And what do we get from the Labor Party? Just the old politics. There is no plan there. There is no plan to deal with the $55 billion black hole that they have created. There is no plan to deal with the debt they left us with. There is no plan to drive growth or to drive better jobs. They have no plan. They just keep on going back to the same old politics that have failed for so long. The opposition are like the Bourbons—they have forgotten nothing and they have learned nothing.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

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

The member for Jagajaga will cease interjecting!

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The Leader of the House will cease interjecting! The level of interjections is far too high; members know that. The member for Wakefield interjected repeatedly through that answer. I lost count of the number of times—

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was seven!

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

You were warned twice yesterday and you are warned now. I do not want there to be any surprise—the next time you interject you will be leaving the chamber.