Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government's plan for lower taxes will grow the economy, create jobs and increase wages, including in my electorate of La Trobe?

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

The honourable member understands very well that the jobs of his constituents depend on businesses having the confidence to invest and to employ. He understands that, as do all of our colleagues on this side of the House. I think some of the Labor side understand it too, but they're being dragged off to the left by the Leader of the Opposition. Off he goes with Ged Kearney, seeking to win the by-election in Batman.

Everything depends on a strong economy: our ability to pay for health, our ability to guarantee Medicare and our ability to deliver, for the first time, national, consistent, needs based school funding—a massive increase in school funding and, for the first time, consistent so that a school with the same needs in one part of the country will get the same funding as a school in another.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

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

The honourable member opposite calls out, 'Rubbish!' I tell you what was rubbish: the rubbish was when the Labor Party shamelessly appropriated David Gonski's name and claimed that their dog's breakfast of inconsistent, contradictory school funding policies was somehow or other the Gonski model. We accepted David Gonski's recommendations, and that's why he stood with me and the Minister for Education and Training when we announced our schools policy.

What we know is that with a strong economy we get more opportunities. Our economic plan that we set out in the budget is delivering that growth: 403,000 jobs, three-quarters of them full time. Overwhelmingly, you're seeing small and medium businesses—the ones that are benefitting from the tax cuts Labor opposed so strenuously and is now committed to rolling back—responding with confidence, offering Australians the opportunity to get started in the workplace. He talks about jobs, or claims to. We delivered jobs: 403,000, the largest number in our history in any given year. That is an achievement of giving Australians the opportunity to get ahead.

What does Labor have to offer us? Billions of dollars of taxes—$165 billion of tax imposed on companies, on businesses large and small, imposed on investors and imposed on families. Every dollar of those taxes is designed and determined to crush incentive, discriminate against hardworking Australian businesses and put Australians out of work. (Time expired)

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. The government has legislation in the Senate right now to increase personal income tax for seven million working Australians. Can the Prime Minister confirm that the government's legislation will mean that a worker earning $60,000 a year will pay $300 more in tax every single year—yes or no?

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

The Leader of the House will cease interjecting.

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

He wants to know yes or no. What about: did the Labor Party fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme? No. Were they fair dinkum to Australian families with disabled children? Did they deceive them? Yes. The Labor Party claimed the credit for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They came to the opposition, led by the member for Warringah, and they challenged him and our side of politics to support an increase in the Medicare levy to go towards funding the NDIS. We supported it because we knew that Australians wanted a National Disability Insurance Scheme and Australians expected that the government would put in place the measures to fund it.

That's what an honest government does. That is what a government does that is fair and fair dinkum. There is nothing fair about saying to the parents of disabled children, 'Well, the money won't be there in the future. The funding isn't in place.' The Labor Party failed the Australian people. They failed to put in place the funding that was needed to support the NDIS. And now, in their hypocrisy, they want to oppose that responsible measure which will ensure that Australians get the support that they need for disabilities.

It is a great national enterprise, and you would think that a party as old as the Labor Party and one that has held government in this capital on so many occasions would rise to the occasion and recognise that that great national enterprise should be funded. It's honest. It's fair. It's fair dinkum. Sadly, the Labor Party of today is anything but that.