Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. According to Australia's first rental affordability index, families in New South Wales on $500 a week have to spend 65 per cent of their income to rent a home. Will the Prime Minister rule out making it even harder for renters by applying an increased GST to rent?

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

I thank the honourable member for Parramatta for her question. We are seeing the same questions about GST on rent that were asked yesterday. This is the same game of fantasy politics, asserting the government has a particular policy. Let me respond by posing this question: what has happened to the Labor Party since 1996? What has happened? The answer is it has gone back to the old anvil. It has walked away—

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

The Prime Minister will resume his seat.

Ms Owens interjecting—

The member for Parramatta has asked her question and will not interject!

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

The member for Sydney will cease interjecting! I am trying to call the member for Watson.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The point of order is on direct relevance. The national conversation cannot be the Prime Minister asking questions of himself!

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

The member for Watson will resume his seat.

Mr Mitchell interjecting—

The member for McEwen will cease interjecting.

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

In the interests of considering why the Labor Party is incapable of playing anything other than the old politics—

Mr Husic interjecting—

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

The member for Chifley is warned!

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

I ask the question again: what has happened to the Labor Party since 1996? It has gone back to the old anvil. It has walked away from financial innovation, from opening up the economy. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Paul Keating himself. Since the Hawke-Keating reform era, which was followed by the Howard-Costello reforms, Labor has lost its imagination.

Government members interjecting—

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

Members on my right will cease interjecting. The Leader of the House and the Treasurer will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It goes to the order of questions. We had a question from the member for Parramatta. We then had the Prime Minister ask himself a question. Can we get the next—

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

The member for Grayndler will resume his seat.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The member for Grayndler is warned!

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

That is the tragedy of the Labor Party. They have lost their creativity. They have lost their willingness to engage in an economic debate. The coalition government, our government, will build on the strong economic legacy left to us by John Howard and Peter Costello.

Mr Husic interjecting—

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

The member for Chifley has been warned!

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

Labor appears committed only to trash the economic credibility it once had.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith will leave the House under standing order 94(a).

The member for Griffith then left the chamber.

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

I look around there. I look at the tragic figure of the member for Fraser, with all of those great works of economic analysis, all of those works dealing with the importance of value-added taxes and consumption taxes. Now every day for breakfast he has to eat another volume of his own writing, while under the whip of the member for Grayndler and the Leader of the Opposition! It is a tough life for the member for Fraser! But do not worry. We pay attention to the member's work. We think some of it is very valuable, and it is definitely going into the mix, especially the work in which the member talks about the value of a creative and flexible approach to the tax system. That is the old Labor Party. What we have today is a party broken and devoid of any imagination.

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

I call the member for Denison.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

The member for Isaacs will relax! I am sure there is a standing order for it.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're on Labor's call. It was the member for Parramatta.

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

It was the member for Parramatta who asked the question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, he asked himself a question!

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

No, and the member for Watson will resume his seat.

Mr Burke interjecting—

The member for Watson has been asked to resume his seat!