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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the prime Minister choosing to gift $17 billion to the big banks instead of supporting Labor's commitment to invest $10 million for chemotherapy treatment at Caboolture Hospital so that people living on Bribie Island can get the cancer treatment they need far closer to home, rather than being required to travel far greater distances into Brisbane itself?

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

The Leader of the Opposition likes to talk about tax, but what he is not being straight with Australians about is the fact that his alternative personal income tax plan is going to see many people in middle Australia—schoolteachers, crane operators and forklift drivers—pay thousands of dollars more tax.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

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

The member for Morton will cease interjecting. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I respect that normally we allow a preamble, but the preamble is dealing with personal tax; the question goes nowhere near it.

Mr Falinski interjecting—

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

The Manager of Opposition Business will just pause for a second. The member for Mackellar is warned.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question deals with two areas of policy: it does touch on company tax and it touches on funding for Caboolture Hospital for chemotherapy treatment. They are the only two issues it covers.

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

I would just like to rule on this point of order before I call the Prime Minister. Whilst generally I allow a preamble—obviously for ministers, including the Prime Minister—on the policy topic, I do say to the Prime Minister on this occasion that the question was specifically about company tax and hospital funding for chemotherapy. I would ask the Prime Minister to confine himself to that part.

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

The government supports Australia having a competitive company tax rate for the same reason the member for McMahon said in his much remaindered book on the subject. He said it was necessary to keep Australian businesses competitive. That is because if Australian businesses are competitive, then they can create jobs, as they have done. There were 415,000 jobs created last year and over a million jobs created since the coalition came into government at the end of 2013.

In terms of Caboolture Hospital, let's not forget this: as the Minister for Health and Sport has set out already, the federal government is providing record growth in funding to Metro North hospitals in Brisbane, which includes Caboolture Hospital. In fact, the state Labor government's funding has been going backwards. That's the big difference. More dollars from the federal government are going into Caboolture Hospital at record levels. Labor's truck, which is going around the Longman electorate, says that the federal government is cutting funding to Caboolture Hospital—that is a lie. It doesn't matter how many times that lying truck goes around the block; it will not make that lie a truth.