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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Just in question time today, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have said that the cost of the government's 10-year corporate tax cut is $26 billion, $36½ billion, then $35.6 billion, then $65.4 billion, and in their latest answer it was back at $35 billion. Prime Minister, how much will the 10-year figure cost taxpayers at the next election?

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

What that question reveals is the Leader of the Opposition's persistent, desperate manner of misrepresenting everything that he has been told. He asked me what the cost of the Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan was from its beginning, from 2016—it began in 2016. Then he asked what it will cost 10 years from 2017. In each case he was given the accurate answer. The fact of the matter is this: over the first 10 years of the enterprise tax plan, which began at the beginning of the current financial year, the cost to the budget of the legislated cuts is about $24 billion. That is legislated. Now, tonight, is the Leader of the Opposition going to announce that those reductions in company tax for small and medium companies will be repealed? That is the first question—because they employ collectively around half of the private sector workforce, and those workers depend on their businesses investing, growing and employing. He is going to have to tell us whether he is going to repeal those legislated tax cuts.

The reality is that to remain competitive we need to have a competitive company tax regime. All of our tax changes are fully funded, fully costed and set out in the budget. They are all there, unlike Labor's, and by 2020-21 we are in surplus to the tune of $7.4 billion. So that is why our budget is fair. It is fair to Australian workers; it is fair to Australians facing disabilities; it is fair to Australians needing to have their guarantee of Medicare and the PBS; it is fair to schoolchildren, who need to be assured that Commonwealth funding is needs based, fair, consistent and equitable right across the nation; and it is fair to build the infrastructure we need for the 21st century—and to do all of that and to live within our means and not throw a mountain of debt, as Labor would, on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. That is the big difference. This is a fair budget and it is a responsible budget. It delivers the economic growth, it delivers the opportunity and it delivers the security that Australians deserve.