David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. How is the government encouraging investment in our economy, and are there other, alternative approaches?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I think it is incredibly pertinent today, because today we have found that there is apparently an alternative policy. In my previous life, my previous role, as an accountant, I never came across an alternative policy quite like this one. This one truly is Zoolander economics. This one believes that the inception, the whole purpose, of people going into business, when those people first come into your accountancy practice and say, 'I want to start up a business,' and you set them up in a simple structure, a partnership, for which either the income or the losses are distributed back to the individuals—but of course in this instance, under the Labor Party policy, they would not be allowed to claim those losses from the partnership. That means the whole reason for them going into that business is almost removed, because they are wearing totally the risk for all the losses.

This is amazing. We have spent today waiting for a clarifying statement from the alternative Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia and yet we cannot get one. So what we currently have is this belief of this complete re-engineering of the Australian economy has got this far this week, and this is what we have to set our sights for. What do we do with things such as margin lending? What do we do with things such as negative gearing on houses? How do we deal with partnerships? How does this economy work under this form of Zoolander economics? We have an alternative Treasurer with a very snappy tie but not a clue how to run the economy. This is quite bizarre. I am receiving texts, as we speak, from other accountants. They are absolutely amazed that you could get this far, that you are apparently the pre-eminent light in the Labor Party frontbench on the affairs of the nation and you have come forward with this. I think there is always a time—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

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

The member for McMahon is warned.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is an epiphany for the Australian people and that epiphany for the Australian people is today, to have the alternate Treasurer come up with such an absolutely absurd proposition as to put under threat the genesis of so many businesses in this nation today.