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

Everybody in this House, and everybody in this country believes that our tax system and our saving system should be designed so as to encourage people to work, to save and to invest. Who would argue with that?

Government members: Labor!

The answer is—my colleagues assist me—Labor. The member for Watson, instead of spending his time actually coming up with some policies that would encourage greater enterprise, greater entrepreneurship, higher savings, better investment, greater business confidence and innovation—instead of coming up with some ideas that would contribute to the public policy debate—what does this poor wretch do? What does he do? He goes back into the library digging through the old records and ploughing through John Hewson's Fightback! I have no criticism of it at all, but I would just say: this is ancient history. I can tell you that on our side of the House, we are not spending any time going through the policies of the Labor Party from 1993. We are concerned with the issues of 2015 and 2030. We are concerned with building the foundations for our future prosperity, not ploughing through political archaeology. Really! The member for Watson should spend his time more fruitfully than this. If he has no imagination at all; if he is so frightened of the future and so anxious about all the things that lie ahead that he is only comfortable living 20 years ago—

See this speech in context