Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. Will the minister update the House on the importance of creating a tax setting which helps grow the economy and reduces the tax burden on hardworking Australians? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches which pose a threat to Australian small businesses and families alike, including in my electorate of Corangamite?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and I applaud her for her tireless advocacy on behalf of her constituents—in particular, the more than 17,000 small businesses that have benefited from our government's small business and medium sized enterprise tax cuts. The government has in fact put in place, and worked very hard to put in place, the right settings to drive economic growth and boost jobs. We've cut taxes for small and medium sized enterprises, and we have seen the creation of 1,100 jobs every day to ensure that more and more Australians have the opportunity to work, to invest and to grow our economy. We know Australia does need to remain competitive. We have to do it with our tax system if we are to drive jobs and growth and remain competitive in a globalised marketplace. Our government will continue to fight for our enterprise tax plan that will deliver the jobs, the increased wages and the economic expansion that we require.

The Leader of the Opposition claims that he supports small business tax cuts, but he would, in fact, raise taxes for small businesses with a turnover of between $2 million and $50 million. The Leader of the Opposition has a problem with this thing called authenticity. He claims to be a big supporter of women, yet this morning we see reports that Jennie George, the first female president of the ACTU, has chastised him for being part of the boys club that is still, of course, his factional power base. In his interview with GQ,when he was asked about Julia Gillard, he said, 'I've always been a supporter of hers.' I wonder if he told her that before he stabbed her in the back.

We have seen revelations documented in The Australian this week that the Leader of the Opposition promised the millionaire Geoff Cousins at least half a dozen times that he'd kill off the Adani coalmine before he promptly suggested to the good people of Queensland last week that there is a role for mining in Australia and there is a role for coal in Australia. He is apparently an ecowarrior in inner-city Melbourne but the miners' mate when he is in North Queensland. As a union leader he froze out women, but now he wants to play 'Mr Feminist' on the pages of GQ magazine.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left!

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is all for reducing company tax cuts when he is sitting in the boardrooms around the country, but he is against company tax cuts when he turns into a GetUp! groupie.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left!

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Leader of the Opposition is completely two-faced and can't be trusted. (Time expired)

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

The level of interjections was too loud, as members know. The member for Perth had been warned. He was one of the louder interjectors. He can leave under standing order 94(a). It's pretty simple to follow the sequence here, but it's lost on some people.

The member for Perth then left the chamber.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm the government is making around 1.5 million Queenslanders pay more income tax every year while it's giving big business a $65 billion tax cut?

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

What I can confirm is that this government is going to make sure that the NDIS is fully funded. That's what this government is going to do. This is what the shadow Treasurer said when the former government increased the Medicare levy as a way of part funding the NDIS:

We took it to the Productivity Commission. They gave a report on how it should be done. We did have to … pay for it, increase the Medicare levy. That's something that was very controversial when we did it but I think the right thing to do because all Australians would recognise that as a decent, compassionate nation, it is the right thing to do now. It is overdue.

If it was the right thing to do then, then it's the right thing to do now.

This is the shadow Treasurer who has turned his back on everything he used to believe. He has completely wilted in the face of the pressure from the Labor Left. His own leader has forced him to turn his back on his previous positions. If he can't stand up to the Leader of the Opposition or the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, what good is he? This is a man who used to believe something. He has been completely brought to the position of recanting humiliation as the shadow Treasurer. That's why he can't be trusted with the nation's finances. Whatever he used to believe doesn't matter, because he hasn't got the ticker to stand up to this Leader of the Opposition, that deputy leader and whatever other pretender on that side there is to the leadership of the Labor Party. He cannot be trusted to hold a position and hold to his convictions and his beliefs on the economy.

We support fully funding the NDIS. We support those people and families in Australia who are relying on this scheme. It was Julia Gillard who said, 'Everybody benefits; everybody puts in.' The Labor Party have turned their back on Julia Gillard, on Bob Hawke and on Paul Keating. They don't know who they are or where they are going. When you believe in nothing no-one will believe in you.