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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the Prime Minister looking after big business with a nearly $50 billion tax handout while doing nothing to stop nearly 700,000 workers having their pay cut?

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

The Leader of the Opposition has been paying visits to Australian businesses in recent times—Velo Cycles, Leussink Engineering—all businesses that desperately need a tax cut, desperately need some help to make more investments, to do better, to ensure that they can employ more Australians. They know that to have more jobs you need more investment. And indeed that was what the Leader of the Opposition used to say. Remember? He gave a number of very powerful speeches in this House when Labor was in government, and he said that a cut in company taxes, which he was arguing for—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

I hear an interjection from the member for McMahon. He wrote a book about it.

An opposition member interjecting—

Look, I'll get to you, Sunshine. I'll get to you; just hang on. So, first we have the Leader of the Opposition. He said: 'A cut in company tax will deliver more investment, more productivity, more employment' and was then followed by the member for McMahon. Not limited to speakers in the chamber, he wrote a book. Volumes of it can be found in any good bookstore where remaindering occurs! It is there, piled up, next to the Kung Fu cookbook, in colour. It is all there, the book by the member for McMahon. And he argues for cutting company tax.

Right across the board, they also argued for it, and they were following in the footsteps of the great Paul Keating. And then of course, when we get to the Fair Work Commission—and they all defended the fact that they established it and they put everybody on it—it gave them a reference on penalty rates. They had committed again and again that they would back it in. The Leader of the Opposition pledged not once, not twice but three times on Neil Mitchell's program on 3AW: 'I will back the Fair Work Commission's decision, even if it results in a reduction in Sunday penalty rates.' Oh yes, he said to the people of Melbourne, he was absolutely committed.

And what has the Fair Work Commission, established by the Labor Party, done? The Fair Work Commission—the personnel chosen by the Labor Party, the reference written by the Labor Party—has considered all of the evidence that it has had and has concluded that bringing Sunday penalty rates closer to Saturday rates will result in more businesses offering more employment to more Australians. It is the Fair Work Commission that has decided to back small business. It is the Labor Party that is abandoning small business.