Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. ABS statistics confirm company profits increased by 5.8 per cent over the year, nearly three times as much as wages growth at 2.1 per cent. So why does this arrogant and out-of-touch Prime Minister support further cutting the penalty rates of up to 11,850 working Australians in Longman on 1 July while he's giving an $80 billion tax cut to big business?

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

The honourable member knows very well, I'm sure, because it was, as the Leader of the Opposition once said, a 'fact' that every student of Australian economic history would be well aware of—

Ms Butler interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith has already been warned.

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

He said that every student of Australian economic history would be aware of the fact that reducing company tax results in higher wages, more jobs, more investment, higher productivity—all of those good things. Do you know what? We're starting to see them now. That's why we've got record jobs growth.

It's a very competitive world out there. The honourable members opposite should recognise the world is getting more competitive than ever and that what we need to do is ensure that every element of our tax system ensures that Australian businesses can compete and win. The member for McMahon set that all out in his famous book years ago. He's munching his way through one copy of it after another. He's being forced to eat his words. Talk about dry economics—it's very dry to have to be munching away through all those books! The fact of the matter is that a more competitive corporate sector results in more investment, more jobs. That's why we're seeing record jobs growth. The Labor Party should recover the economic good sense they had in years past and support our enterprise tax plan.