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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Last year company profits increased by 20 per cent while average wages for Australians increased by just two per cent, so why is the Prime Minister giving the top end of town a $65 billion tax cut while increasing taxes on ordinary workers by up to $300 every year?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. It's good to know that he's got the same questions he had last year. Nothing has changed over the break, but there is one little difference—actually, it's rather a big difference. About a year ago the Leader of the Opposition was at the Press Club, and he gave a speech. He said 2017 would be all about jobs, jobs, jobs. How about 403,000 new jobs? How about that—403,000 new jobs last year, with three-quarters of them full time? It is the largest annual jobs growth since records began, because of the policies that we have put in place that are encouraging businesses to invest and employ. Business confidence and consumer confidence are all at highs, and yet we have a Labor leader who is the most anti-business Labor leader we've seen in generations.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

The member for Isaacs is chuckling there, because he knows I'm being too generous. He's probably the most anti-business Labor leader forever. This guy has declared war on business. He went to the Business Council of Australia and told them they could expect nothing from him. And, indeed, this is the man that, a year ago in that memorable speech at the Press Club, described the Trans-Pacific Partnership as absolutely dead. He said, 'Why is the Prime Minister wasting his time trying to do CPR on the TPP?' 'It's worse than a vanity project,' he said. Well, it's agreed: the TPP is underway with 11 nations—we regret the absence of the US—opening up more opportunities for exports, for investment and for jobs. He has opposed the legislation that has gone through this parliament in the course of the last 18 months, which is creating those 403,000 jobs—the tax cuts are for small and medium, overwhelmingly family-owned, Australian businesses. These are businesses that are investing and employing, and the Leader of the Opposition wants to take those tax cuts away. He wants businesses to pay more tax. He wants families to pay more tax. He wants more tax on investment and on property. He does not have one policy to encourage one business to invest one dollar or hire one employee. Jobs, jobs, jobs—we delivered them— (Time expired)