Ged Kearney (Batman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that last night every member of this government, including the member for Corangamite, voted against Labor's personal income tax plan that will give $66,000 people in Corangamite a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they will get from the government? Why didn't this Prime Minister vote for lower taxes for 10 million Australians instead of giving an $80 billion handout to big business?

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

The member for Batman will resume her seat.

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Mr Laming interjecting—

The member for Corangamite is warned! The member for Bowman is warned! I'm going to ask the member for Batman to repeat the question without interjection. Interjections will be dealt with severely. I could not hear the second part of that question at all. I remind members of the House that it's the member for Batman's first question. The member for Batman.

Ged Kearney (Batman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Prime Minister: Can the Prime Minister confirm that last night every member of this government, including the member for Corangamite, voted against Labor's personal income tax plan that would give 66,000 people in Corangamite a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they will get from the government? Why didn't this Prime Minister vote for lower taxes for 10 million Australians instead of giving an $80 billion handout to big business?

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

I can confirm, as the honourable is well aware, that not only all members of the government but all members of the opposition voted for the government's tax plan. They did. They all voted for it. They're all over here. We're all in favour. All in favour last night and now filled with regret. We voted, with support from the Labor Party, for a huge reform of personal income tax worth $140 billion over the medium term. Labor attempted to amend—we recall that very well—as part of their effort to impose $200 billion of additional taxes on Australians. Posing as caring for Australians, the Labor Party want to go after one Australian business after another, want to put up personal income tax and, most shamefully of all, want to go after, to the tune of $5 billion a year, the savings of hardworking retired Australians.

The honourable member referred to the member for Corangamite and her constituents. In Corangamite there are thousands of businesses that are getting on and getting ahead because of the incentive the government has given them. The member for Corangamite knows very well that the future of her community depends on a stronger economy and a government that backs that enterprise, and she knows that that is what is driving the record jobs growth in Australia. But as to the member for Batman, on the other hand, I don't think that she, when she was recently campaigning, went around and told some of the retirees in her seat how much of their savings they were going to raid. She and her colleagues are coming after those savings. Yes, they are. All of those hardworking people in Batman who have worked hard and saved and invested, the Labor Party are going to cut their income by 20 per cent, 30 per cent—a massive cut out of the income of Australians who are too old to go and get another job or start a business—going after the most vulnerable. They denied the ineligibility of their dual citizen members for the same reason they doctored the transcript of the member for Barton—because they thought they could get away with it. The Leader of the Opposition will try anything on, any duplicity because he thinks he can get away with it. The Australian people are too smart for him and they are too smart for Labor.

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

Prime Minister, over the raucous interjections, I didn't hear a certain remark you said. Did the Prime Minister make an unparliamentary remark? We will move on.