Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the important policies that back business so they can create more jobs for Australians and pay Australian workers higher wages, including in my electorate of Capricornia? Is the Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

I'm comforted that my microphone is the only one that's on at the moment! The economy is powering because Australian businesses are creating a record number of jobs—420,000 of them in the last 12 months. And if you want even more jobs, and that's our goal—it should be the goal of all the honourable members—business needs policies that support investment. More investment means more jobs for Australians. And that's why our economic policies are backing businesses to invest more here in Australia.

The alternative is doing nothing or, in the case of the opposition, raising taxes and sending Australian jobs and investment offshore. As the member for Fenner said some years ago, 'Capital is very mobile and it will go where it gets the best return.' Why would we put lead in the saddlebags of Australian businesses in a competitive global environment where they want to get ahead, they want to invest and they want to employ? We need to make sure they have the energy to get ahead, the incentive to get ahead, while Labor, of course, wants to hold them back.

If the tax rate for businesses with a turnover of over $50 million remains at 30 per cent, we will be holding those businesses back, holding them back from creating more jobs and higher wages. The Leader of the Opposition doesn't simply oppose lower taxes for all businesses; he wants to increase them. He wants to slug Australian workers, families and small business with more than $200 billion in higher taxes. That's the equivalent of $8,000 for every single Australian, $40,000 for a family of five. That's what the opposition leader wants to put on the backs of Australian businesses and families. And the only result that will have is the destruction of jobs. The reason he's doing that? He can't stop taxing, because he can't stop spending. He wants to reach into the pockets of Australian workers and pay for his spending addiction.

He can't be trusted on any of these matters. He said his retiree tax only targeted millionaires. False! He then conceded. After repeated denials that his tax would take money from pensioners and trustees, now he's admitted that it will. He admitted it today. Yesterday pensioners were let off, he said. Now he recognises, acknowledges, that he's still hitting pensioners. And what about self-funded retirees? His pensioner guarantee was no more than a limited and 24-hour exemption. Australians can't trust a word the Leader of the Opposition says on their money.