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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Last year, average wages for Australian workers rose by only two per cent but corporate profits rose by 20 per cent. When ordinary workers are already doing it tough, why is the Prime Minister slugging millions of workers with a $300 tax increase at the same time as giving away $65 billion to big business?

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

The Leader of the Opposition, as usual, is seeking to mislead us by talking about the level of company profits. The reality is the figure that he's using is one massively inflated by the commodities boom, a once-in-a-generation boom. The Treasurer will have more to say about that. What we need to focus on today is the fact that the Labor Party, which poses as the alternative government, has not one policy that would create one job or encourage one business to invest one dollar. The Leader of the Opposition wants to impose $165 billion of new taxes. He seems to think that, somehow or other, it would be good for employment if business owners are forced to pay more taxes. We know that more than half of Australia's workforce works for small and medium family businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million a year. They are not gigantic businesses.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

You can hear the Labor benches scoffing at that. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that he should encourage his team to get out more and find out who the workers in their electorates actually work for. They're working for hardworking Australian-owned family businesses. They have been investing their earnings, their after-tax earnings, for years to grow their businesses and create more jobs. I was with one in Brisbane the other day, the Eckersley Print Group, a classic example of that.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith.

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

They are being encouraged by our small and medium enterprise tax cuts to do more of that, and they're responding. Last year, the Leader of the Opposition went to the National Press Club and said that this year, 2018, he was going to be talking about 'jobs, jobs, jobs'. Well, he didn't talk very much about it, other than his own job. But what we saw was 403,000 jobs created in Australia, three-quarters of them full time. The biggest contribution came from those small and medium family-owned businesses—Australian businesses. They are the very businesses that the Labor Party want to impose higher taxes on, and they claim to come here and say they're for jobs. What do they really think the response of a family-owned business, a small or medium business, is going to be when a Labor government imposes higher taxes? They'll cut back, and I tell you what: they'll cut back on jobs. We're for jobs. Labor's seeking to destroy them. (Time expired)