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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Just this morning, the Treasurer reintroduced a bill to give big business a handout. Can the Prime Minister please tell Australians what is the updated cost of the government's full 10-year company tax cut?

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

I thank the honourable member for the question because it brings to mind another important matter that he should note for his stirring address tonight, and that is this: the tax cuts for small and medium business, which employ collectively nearly half of all of the Australian private sector employees, are law—they have been passed. And they cost, over the 10 years, $24 billion, around half of the total of the Enterprise Tax Plan.

So, is the Leader of the Opposition, having spent that $24 billion, tonight going to say that he will repeal it? Is he going to say, to all those hardworking family-owned businesses, that the Labor Party is going to increase tax on them? Is he going to say to them, as they take the incentive and the encouragement to invest and employ, 'Oh, that tax cut was a handout'? Note the language; it is very insightful. He says that a tax cut is a handout. What that means is that the view of the Leader of the Opposition is that every dollar earned by a business actually belongs to the government, and such portion as the government allows the business to retain is a handout.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business, a point of order?

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

The question is specifically asking for a 10-year costing on a bill that was introduced to the parliament today. He is not being relevant.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

The Leader of the House will cease interjecting.

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

The question asked quite specifically about a costing on their own legislation—an updated costing for the House. It is a reasonable question and he should be relevant to it.

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

I thank the Manager of Opposition Business for his point of order. It was a short question, and it did specifically ask, as he says—it did have a short preamble to it as well—and the Prime Minister is on the policy topic of the question, which the Manager of Opposition Business acknowledged, is my consistent ruling. I am listening closely to the Prime Minister, but he is in order.

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

I regret that the honourable member was not listening closely, because, had he been, he would recall that I said that the business enterprise tax cuts already passed have a 10-year cost of $24 billion, which I said was around half of the total package, and I am reminded by the Treasurer that the second part of the package would have a 10-year cost of $26 billion. So, it is around half of the $50 billion package.

But the fundamental point is this. If we want to ensure that our children and our grandchildren have jobs, if we want to ensure that our businesses can compete, if we want to be sure that people will invest in Australian businesses, then we must have a competitive tax rate. Now, nobody has more eloquently spoken of the need for this than the Leader of the Opposition, when he said that a lower company tax rate means more investment, more productivity, more employment. So motivated and inspired by this eloquence was the member for McMahon that he wrote a whole book about it. The fact is that the Labor Party cannot be trusted on this or any other issue. They promise to do one thing and they do the reverse, just like they promised to fight for the schoolkids bonus every day up to the election. Well, they abandoned it just before the election, as we remember, and they abandoned their commitment to tax reform. They abandoned their commitment to investment, to employment, to Australian workers, just as the Leader of the Opposition used to sell his own members down the river when he was running the AWU. (Time expired)