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

My question is to the Prime Minister. It's reported that a deal between One Nation and the government to give big business an $80 billion handout will be more likely after the upcoming by-elections. Why is the government negotiating with One Nation to give big business an $80 billion handout after the by-elections? Don't voters in Longman, Braddon, Mayo, Fremantle and Perth deserve to know the truth about this government teaming up with One Nation to give the banks $17 billion?

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

The honourable member asked me about the voters in Longman being entitled to hear the truth. That is absolutely right. They are, and they did not get the truth from the Leader of the Opposition on 22 June when he said on radio that you could not get chemotherapy on Bribie; you'd have to go to Brisbane to get it. You couldn't get it anywhere near Caboolture. A lady called Patsy rang in to the radio program and sought to correct the Leader of the Opposition. It is one of the most excruciating calls to listen to—the patronising way in which he talks over Patsy, cuts her off, does not want to listen to her, and finally says, 'Patsy, I can't see why you're so frustrated.' Patsy spoke for all Australians—and certainly all the voters in Longman—when she said, 'I'm frustrated because you're not telling the truth, for God's sake.'

Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—

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

The member for Goldstein is warned.

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

She called him out for one falsehood after another, and when she sought to correct him about the state of affairs at the hospital and health in Caboolture, he talked over the top of her again.

Ms Swanson interjecting—

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

The member for Paterson is warned.

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

He said, in a rather patronising way: 'Well, we disagree there, Patsy. You're entitled to your opinion.' She, again speaking for all Australians and certainly everyone in Longman, said: 'Are you serious? I live here. I know.' The fact is that the Leader of the Opposition is misleading the people of Longman, as he is misleading the people in Braddon and right around the country.

Mr Gosling interjecting—

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

The member for Solomon will leave under 94(a).

The member for Solomon then left the chamber.

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

Everything they are saying about the funding to Caboolture Hospital is absolutely false. Funding has increased. Even when Patsy calls up and seeks to set the facts straight based on her knowledge of living in Caboolture and using the medical services at the hospital, this arrogant, out-of-touch Leader of the Opposition talks over the top of her and says, rather grandly, 'Oh, you're entitled to your opinion.'

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

The Prime Minister will resume his seat.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sit down, boofhead!

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

The member for Whitlam will leave the chamber under 94(a).

The member for Whitlam then left the chamber.

I made it clear to all members a couple of question times ago that some of those words that the Prime Minister just used I didn't like in questions and I don't like them in answers either. I'd ask the Prime Minister to desist. Has the Prime Minister concluded his answer? There are 10 seconds left.

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

I'll just say again—Patsy spoke for all Australians when she said to the Leader of the Opposition, 'I'm frustrated because you're not telling the truth, for God's sake.'

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation. Will the minister update the House on how the government's tax cuts benefit small and family businesses, including in my electorate of Corangamite? How would small and family businesses suffer if these tax cuts were repealed?

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and her passion for small and family businesses. Today we've seen the latest demonstration of the ignorance of the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to how small and family businesses in this country operate. One of the most valuable business lessons I have learnt in my life is that you don't live off turnover; a business lives off its profit. Parramatta Road runs right through my electorate, and the Leader of the Opposition would have you believe that Tom and his wife, who are car wholesalers—they flip four to five cars a week at an average of 20 grand a car and are turning over $5.5 million a year—have a big business. They work out of a briefcase and off a mobile phone. The Leader of the Opposition will tell you that Rob and his father, who sell farm equipment in northern New South Wales—they sell bits of gear that average between $2,000 and $500,000 a pop and turn over $25 million a year—have a big business.

The reason the Leader of the Opposition doesn't get it is he's never done it. He wants to sully the reputation of the Prime Minister, who, in his life pre-politics, has taken on truckloads of bank debt, employed truckloads of people and paid truckloads of tax. He wants to sully not just the Prime Minister's reputation but the reputation of anyone who's done that. The reality is, when it comes to the Leader of the Opposition, the biggest financial transaction he will undertake in his life is signing his mortgage documents. That's the reality. He wants to run the biggest business in this country with no understanding of how business actually operates.

What do small and family businesses do? Like the Prime Minister, like Tom and like Rob and his father have done, they put their family's home on the line. Why? It is to give their children more opportunities than they've had. They are an invaluable part of the local community. That is why, for 4½ years, the Turnbull coalition government have stood with them. That's why, today, we stand shoulder to shoulder with them. That's how we got the result of a million jobs, the highest business confidence and 158,000 small and family businesses net opening in the last 4½ years. That's how you get the numbers.

The Leader of the Opposition doesn't get it because he's never done it. He wants to take an axe to people prepared to put their family home on the line to get their family ahead. That's what aspiration is. We on this side of the House get it. A lot of us have actually done it pre-politics and—who knows?—may go back to doing it post-politics. The Leader of the Opposition has never done it in his life, yet he wants to present himself to the Australian people as an alternative and, at the same time, sully the reputation of someone who gets on. Today, Labor declared war on small and family business—make no bones about it.

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. Last year, the National Australia Bank made a net profit of about $5 billion but cut 6,000 jobs. Why is the Prime Minister trying to cut a deal with One Nation to reward the big banks with a $17 billion handout? Why do this Prime Minister's arrogant and out-of-touch policies always reward the top end of town while workers get punished?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to respond to the question. The Labor Party keep talking about 'the top end of town'. We talked about this yesterday. What the Labor Party are doing by opposing the Turnbull government's Enterprise Tax Plan, which will ensure that Australian businesses pay competitive rates of tax—if we don't make this change, Australia will have the second-highest tax rate of businesses anywhere in the developed world. That's where they want Australia to be. They want Australia to be up there with the second-highest rate of business taxes in the world, and somehow that is supposed to drive our economy forward. As I said yesterday, the top end of town that benefits from what Labor are doing is the top end of town in Manhattan, in San Francisco, in Dallas, in Houston, in Singapore, in Hong Kong, in London and in all of these places, because what the Labor Party want to do is ensure that the businesses that Australian businesses compete with will have lower rates of tax than Australia will. The Labor Party want to send jobs offshore; they want to send investment offshore. This is the Labor Party that do not understand, as the Minister for Small and Family Business has just demonstrated, how the economy can grow.

We are now the absolute inheritors of the ladder of opportunity. We have always been that. We have always understood the aspiration of people who have been able to get ahead in life—no better demonstrated than by the Prime Minister himself, working away over many, many years. We understand that. But the snaky way that this Labor Party go about economic policy, setting one group of Australians against another, demonising one while trying to pretend they're doing something for the other—it's very snaky. I was talking about the boa constrictor before—the one that suffocates and constricts the blood supply to the body as it defeats it. That's what Labor's policy will do to our economy. But there are plenty of other snaky characters—plenty of them. If you look at the king brown snake, it has the largest recorded venom output of any in the world. Who does that remind me of? The Leader of the Opposition!

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

I will just say to the Treasurer: I don't like the track he's going down. He's about to get bitten!

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The snakes-and-ladders approach of tax policy that we've seen from the Labor Party is saying to people that they reckon they'll put them on the ladder of opportunity, and the truth is that they're just going to slide all the way to the bottom under Labor's tax policy.