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. Retail, hospitality, fast food and pharmacy workers will have their penalty rates cut again this Sunday. Why does this Prime Minister support cutting the penalty rates of over 11,000 working Australians in Longman by up to $77 a week while he's giving an $80 billion handout to big business and the top end of town? Is the Prime Minister telling these hardworking Australians who are having their penalty rates cut again this Sunday to get a better job?

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

We know that the honourable member is baffled by geography and mystified by aspiration and she's also way off target with her class war. This is the Deputy Leader of the Opposition who describes businesses with turnovers of above $2 million as being at the very high end. 'We absolutely won't support tax cuts at the very high end,' she said, when asked by Michael Rowland about their policy—the captain's call policy, which she studiously avoided any association with. What she has done, in her claim to be concerned about the biggest companies in Australia, is to threaten the viability of millions of small companies and hundreds of thousands of family-owned businesses of the type we've been discussing here today—Stubbs Constructions, aussieBum—businesses with 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 or 200 employees. This is where 4.8 million Australians work. They work in the businesses whose viability is threatened by the Labor Party.

They can go on with their class war as long as they like, but these family-owned businesses and their employees know that Labor is coming after them—and it will be very interesting to see them as they go to their business lunches and go around visiting businesses, seeking approbation for putting up their tax. Every business knows Labor is a threat. It's a threat to the business, it's a threat to the employees and it's a threat to every one of those 4.8 million jobs. It is private business, the business sector, that employs 90 per cent of Australians. Labor is declaring war on the businesses that employ 90 per cent of Australians. They have abandoned the workers. They are a threat to the economy. They're a threat to growth, they're a threat to jobs and they're a threat to wages.