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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Working Australians are already doing it tough, with this Prime Minister presiding over the lowest wages growth on record, so how is it fair that this Prime Minister is giving a $65 billion handout to big business while slugging workers with a $300 tax increase?

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

The honourable member knows very well why we are supporting reductions in company tax. The arguments were made by him very, very well here only a few years ago. In fact, he stood at the dispatch box as a minister in the Gillard government, and he said, 'Lower company taxes result in more investment, higher productivity and higher wages.' That's what he said as he made that case. And that was orthodox economics. It was absolutely accepted from both sides of politics that lower business taxes—

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

You opposed it!

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

The member for Rankin!

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

result in more investment, higher productivity—

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

You opposed it!

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

The member for Rankin is warned.

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

higher wages and more employment. We managed to secure, despite the ferocious opposition of the Labor Party, cuts to company tax for businesses up to $50 million, with the last group over $25 million, starting on 1 July this year. Small and medium businesses have got tax cuts under our government—overwhelmingly Australian owned, overwhelmingly family owned. And we are seeing the growth in those businesses in the jobs numbers—420,700 jobs in the last 12 months. That's the highest annual jobs growth in our history. There have been 17 consecutive months of jobs growth—the longest run of monthly jobs growth in our history. We see the highest female participation rate in our history. And 78 per cent of those 420,000 jobs are full-time. We saw last month a decline in part-time jobs overwhelmed by a much larger increase in full-time jobs.

Only last week, I was at Bisalloy at Unanderra near Port Kembla, a company making the best steel in the world—who we have been defending, obviously, internationally—and that company told us how they are increasing their employment numbers as their growth continues. They're encouraged by the business tax cuts, and they are re-engaging casual workers as full-time employees. So you're seeing more full-time employment, more employment, higher female participation and the highest jobs growth in our history; that's what our economic policy delivers. We promised jobs and growth, and that's exactly what we're delivering, and the honourable member knows full well that the company tax cuts are a huge part of that, and the arguments for making them are exactly the ones he presented from this dispatch box when he was in government.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister advise the House how the government's plan for lowest business taxes will help generate jobs and grow wages for Australian workers and their families? Can the Prime Minister describe how alternative approaches will impact on our economy?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question. The member for Gilmore was with me when I visited Bisalloy last week. She knows full well that so many of her constituents work at Bisalloy or BlueScope, and they know exactly how important the encouragement we're providing to business is, with more than 420,000 jobs created over the last 12 months and 17 consecutive months of jobs growth—both records. But we want to see even more jobs, and we want those jobs and skills to stay in Australia, rather than going overseas. We risk all of this without policies that support business and encourage investment because, as we know, investment creates jobs. Investment drives productivity. Investment drives the productivity that delivers higher wages, and that's why we're supporting both.

Businesses will only increase investment where they have an incentive to do so, and that's why we need to have a competitive tax rate for all businesses. We've already seen this. As I said in my previous answer, for small and family businesses with up to $50 million in turnover, they are responding, they are investing, they are employing and they are paying more workers higher wages as a result. We want that same support for all businesses so that even more jobs can be created for Australians. The average full-time worker would have an extra $650 in their pockets each and every year as a result of our enterprise tax plan. We stand for lower taxes, because they create jobs and grow wages.

The Labor Party, on the other hand, do not have a single policy that would encourage one business to invest $1 or hire one employee. They have no policies at all. The Labor Party have none. They practice a form of fantasy economics where you can raise taxes and increase spending and then promise Australians they will somehow be better off. Australians can see through that. They know what happens if you raise an additional $200 billion in tax, which is what Labor is proposing—the equivalent of $8,000 for every, man woman and child in Australia. Labor claims that is going to encourage economic activity. We all know what higher taxes do: they discourage investment, they discourage employment and they reduce opportunities for Australians, when we owe it to Australians to be increasing them. Whichever way you look at it, the Labor Party is against investment and it's against jobs. (Time expired)

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

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

The Prime Minister's time has concluded. Members on my left and the member for McEwen. I don't need any help with the clock.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Over the last two years wages have grown by only four per cent while company profits have increased by a very substantial 32 per cent. When companies are already pocketing massive profits, which they haven't passed on to workers, why should Australians believe that a $65 billion handout to big business will mean higher wages for them?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question. National accounts data show that over the past year private sector company profits grew by five per cent while compensation of employees grew by 4.8 per cent. So the premise of the honourable member's question is wrong. ABS business indicators data show over the past year aggregate wages and salaries, and company gross operating profits, both grew by 4.3 per cent. Even if we were to accept Labor's two-year time period, it ignores the fact that in the four years prior to that company profits have been declining. And, indeed, over the past six years compensation of employees has grown by 21.8 per cent while company profits grew by 13. 7 per cent. So the whole proposition that companies are making gigantic profits at an ever increasing rate and employees' wages are not keeping up is completely and utterly false, and the figures I've just quoted prove that very point.

The honourable members opposite are now in the business of denial on the question of tax and investment. They seem to now think that higher taxes are good for investment. If we go back to the member for Lilley's 2010 budget speech, that was a cracker. We all remember he was proposing to cut company tax by one per cent. He said:

Cutting the company tax rate will make Australia a more competitive destination for investment. Greater investment in capital will support higher productivity and real wage increases for Australian workers.

Then he went on to say:

Our key business tax reforms will increase real wages by around 1.1 per cent in the long run, putting an extra $450 a year into the pockets of workers on average earnings.

So what sort of fantasy economics is it where reducing company tax increases investment, increases productivity and increases wages if it's done by a Labor government, but doesn't if it's done by a Liberal-National coalition government? This is the way in which the Labor Party has shifted from being a party that used to recognise that the private sector was important for employment to being a party that—as the Leader of the Opposition said very clearly when he met the Business Council of Australia—has declared war on business, on aspiration, on investment, and thus on jobs. (Time expired)