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. On Thursday, the Australian Financial Review reported that the cabinet had decided it would not be spooked into releasing its tax plan before budget day. But today, the same paper reports the Prime Minister has decided to do the exact opposite by releasing his tax plans before budget day. Prime Minister, which is it? Is it the cabinet decision from last week or the Prime Minister's captain's call from the weekend?

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

I thank the member for Sydney for her question. I note that she is a diligent reader of the Australian Financial Review. What a pity that she has not been a diligent reader of her own alternative government's tax policy.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

The member for Sydney speaks a lot about equality. She speaks a lot about fairness, and fairness is an absolutely critical element in any tax policy. We are considering carefully every aspect of tax because we do not want to make the same type of ill-considered mistakes the Labor Party has made in opposition and, of course, previously made in government.

We all remember the mining tax which, forecast to raise billions, raised millions. We all remember the catastrophic projects that they undertook—

A government member: Pink batts!

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

whether it was the pink batts—I am reminded—the school halls or the ban on live cattle exports, which trashed that industry. Indeed, we could think about the NBN, where the Labor Party developed a program in 11 weeks.

Opposition members interjecting—

Eleven weeks is all it took to come up with a catastrophic project, which it has been the job of our government to remedy, to fix and to move forward. The job of the coalition all too often is to clean up Labor's mess.

The honourable member for Sydney knows full well that the tax policy that she supports is one that will undermine home values in her electorate and right around the country. It will undermine investment. It will discourage investment. It will discourage jobs. It stands in the way of economic growth. It stands in the way of our progress to the prosperity that awaits us if we are able to seize the opportunities of the 21st century—opportunities that Labor's policies would deny us.

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

The member for Chifley and the member for Parramatta were interjecting incessantly through that answer. I am not going to detain the House every time there is an interjection, but if this continues it will be followed by a warning and ejection, at the least.