Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the government's plans to drive jobs and growth? Are there any alternative policy approaches?

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

As I was saying in my earlier answer, every lever is pulling in the direction of jobs and growth. Everything we are doing is calculated to ensure that there is more investment and more employment. I mentioned earlier the free trade agreements in Asia—with Japan, China and Korea—and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I hear the members on the Labor Party benches scoffing. Well, no doubt the farmers, the manufacturers, the tourism operators, the universities and the small businesses right across Australia that are benefiting from those opportunities will not find their derision so appealing. They recognise that these opportunities are creating jobs and growth.

We consider the state of Tasmania. Historically, it has been challenged economically. It is seeing strong economic growth and unemployment lower than the national average. What? Why is that? It is driven by exports. It is driven by exports enabled by trade agreements entered into by our government.

Let me turn now to the question of alternative approaches. I mentioned that the Labor Party is proposing to increase the capital gains tax so that, on a top marginal rate, it would go to 37 per cent. That is dramatically higher than the United States, higher than the UK and much higher than New Zealand, which does not have a capital gains tax. Right across the board, it would be the highest capital gains tax in any comparable country. Think about this. Imagine an investor—it could be in a small business; it could be a property; it could be a farm; it could be some shares. Imagine they achieved, over five years, a reasonable annual return of five per cent. They get five per cent return capital growth. It is not the best investment in the world, but it is solid growth. Under Labor's tax, that would mean that the tax on their real gain after inflation at the long-run average of 2½ per cent would be 70 per cent. In other words, they would be imposing a 70 per cent tax on an investor's after-tax return. Nothing could be more calculated to put the brakes on investments, jobs and growth.