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

It is very important, as you get older and as you move from job to job in this place, to learn something. I have to tell you: the rule in, rule out politics are for yesterday. That was yesterday. It was as unproductive when I was asking your side to rule in or rule out as it is when you are asking me to rule in or rule out. The truth of the matter is that you know as well as I do that you could be—or the honourable member could be—engaging in a debate about growth. I assume that everybody in this chamber wants our grandchildren and our children to have better jobs and greater opportunities. We want our economy to grow. Are we not all on board for that objective? You would think so.

We are seeking to do that and we have a lot of measures for it. I have mentioned the free trade agreements. We will be releasing very shortly—in a few weeks, in fact—an innovation statement that will drive stronger innovation. We recognise that the tax and savings and transfer system is very complex. It is absolutely very complex. And so we initiated in March a discussion about that. We talked about the merits of different taxes—how some of them put more of a brake on the economy than others and how some of them have been overtaken by technology and need to be amended.

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