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. Wages growth for workers is stuck at record lows. Why is the Prime Minister asking Australians to believe that his Trump style $65 billion big business tax cuts will trickle down to ordinary workers?

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

The opposition either have the memory of a goldfish, or they think that everybody else does. Go back to 2011 and some remarks from the House of Representatives:

Cutting the company income tax rate increases domestic productivity and domestic investment. More capital means higher productivity and economic growth and leads to more jobs and higher wages.

Who was the economic genius that said that! Who was it? It was the member for Maribyrnong, the Leader of the Opposition. It really wasn't that long ago. And everything that's said here gets written down, you see; that's what they've overlooked; they thought it just vanished in the breeze. No. He said:

More capital means higher productivity and economic growth and leads to more jobs and higher wages.

It may be that the member for Sydney does not find her leader entirely convincing; it could be that. But he was, to be fair, only quoting economic orthodoxy and common sense. And, of course, in the previous year, the member for Lilley's Budget Paper No. 1 said:

Cutting the company tax rate will make Australia a more competitive destination for investment.

What an insight! He goes on:

Greater investment in capital will support higher productivity and real wage increases for Australian workers.

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

The member for Rankin is warned!

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

The member for Lilley went on:

In current terms, this reform dividend is equivalent to an extra $450 per year in the pocket of a fulltime worker on average weekly earnings.

He went on in the budget speech—he didn't just leave it in the fine print. The member for Lilley said:

Our key business tax reforms will increase real wages by about 1.1 per cent in the long run, putting an extra$450 a year in the pockets of workers on average earnings.

All of that was a penetrating glimpse of the obvious. It is plain that if you give companies the incentive to invest more, they will do so. When they invest more, just as the Leader of the Opposition said on 23 August 2011, it will lead to higher productivity, economic growth, more jobs and higher wages. I refer the honourable member to her leader's economic lesson of some years past.