Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is, indeed, a pleasure to follow the honourable member for Lalor. I want to raise a few points about the issues she raised, quite dutifully, about low wage growth. Everyone knows that low wage growth is not just a problem that we are dealing with here in Australia; it is an economic issue that the globe is dealing with. The evidence for that is the evidence that the RBA governor gave the other day at the recent economics hearings in Melbourne, where he stated that very point—that low wage growth is an issue that is hampering all of the OECD countries, including Canada, America and those in Asia.

We have a plan for how we are going to address wage growth into the future. The reality is—to make it as simple as I can for Australians who are tuned in—the way a business is able pay their employees a greater percentage of the turnover is for those profits to become bigger. Now, let me give you 101 economics as to how profits don't become bigger: they don't become bigger when a Labor government sets out and says to the Australian community they are going to tax family trusts and take more money off small businesses.

I have a family trust. I'll put that on the record. I don't know how long I'll have it for, but I have a family trust. I am a transport operator. I've got a couple of trucks, and I used to employ 105 people. But the government thinks that I am the perfect hit to go after because I am some type of multimillionaire who can afford to pay more. If you take more money out of the family trusts, thinking that that's going to have a direct positive impact on wage growth, I struggle to understand what your economic rationale is with that. I'm struggling to understand how the Labor Party think if they put their hands in the pockets of small businesses around this country that somehow that is going to create a stimulus for our economy and for small business, not to mention the school teachers—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. Say that again.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The discussion will take place through the chair. That's for both sides.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought Labor members on the other side of the Chamber were making an interjection to correct me. They were actually reiterating the fact that all companies should pay tax. We're not disputing the fact that tax has to be paid; we're disputing the claim that taxing more will have a positive impact on wage growth. For the benefit of Hansard, those on the other side of the Chamber are shaking their heads. There is no rationale for, or logic in, the claim, which those opposite are clinging to, that Labor's measures will not have a negative impact on wage growth. I am flabbergasted—absolutely flabbergasted.

I stood up to speak about some of the good things that the government is doing, in particular in the Defence Force Parliamentary Program. Recently I had the great pleasure of being able to attend Exercise Talisman Sabre at Shoalwater Bay, which is a military exercise involving about 30,000 military personnel that took place 90 kilometres north of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. The exercise included American, Australian, Canadian, Japanese, French and New Zealand personnel. It was a remarkable logistical exercise that involved amphibious landings, ground operations and so on.

I think I mentioned to the Chamber previously the exciting spectacle when four C-17s flew over the site, the back of the aircraft opened and no fewer than 500 parachutists jumped out. I said to the commander on the ground, 'Are they enthusiastic to jump out of the plane? Do they need much encouragement?' and the commander said, 'They need no encouragement whatsoever. They've been on those aircraft for 44 hours. They left Alaska and it's been a direct flight. We were rehearsing our mid-air refuelling capabilities.' He reiterated the point that the 500 marines would be very enthusiastic to get off the plane as quickly as they could.

He also indicated to me that those soldiers would spend no less than 72 hours on the ground, only to be put back on the aircraft and sent back to Alaska. That talks about the capacity of our allied forces to come from one side of the world to the other in a very short amount of time. Being able to put trained deployed troops on the ground in any type of environment is evidence of every cent that we spend in our defence capacity. To our fully enlisted brave men and women who participated in that exercise, I say that, as a country, we are so proud of you. We are so proud of our reservists. Keep up the great work. Our country is proud of you.