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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given the strong endorsement the Prime Minister has given to his corporate tax cuts, will he commit right now to taking his $65 billion of big corporate business handouts to the next election?

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You endorsed them as well, remember?

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

The member for Corangamite is warned.

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. We're looking forward to our enterprise tax cuts being passed in the Senate in this parliament. The Labor Party has opposed them. It opposed the tax cuts that were passed in the Senate previously, and they are tax cuts that are operating now. Right now in the honourable member's electorate of Maribyrnong 15,937 businesses are benefiting from the tax cuts that have already been passed. What the owners of those businesses want to know—most of them very small businesses, overwhelmingly family-owned businesses—is why their own member leads a party that wants to take those tax cuts away, that wants them to pay more tax. They're starting to see some green shoots in the economy. They're starting to see jobs growth. They're starting to see the better times that the Treasurer promised at the last budget. They're starting to see them, and they want to know whether those tax cuts—

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

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How are you going to get rid of them?

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

The Leader of the House will cease interjecting. The Leader of the Opposition will state the point of order.

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

It is on direct relevance. It was a very specific question: will he take his tax cuts to the next election, yes or no?

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

On that point of order, the question had a number of aspects to it. That was one part of the question. The Prime Minister is completely relevant in his answer. He stayed completely on the topic of tax cuts.

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

We are looking forward to our tax cuts being passed in this parliament and, yes, we will go to the next election with the benefit of those tax cuts flowing through into the economy in thousands more jobs. The real question is about the ambiguity we have from the Labor Party and what they will do about the thousands of small businesses. We stand for competitive company tax in Australia, as Labor used to, and we remain committed to that, because we want Australian workers to get the benefit from the investment that only a competitive tax rate can deliver. The honourable member wants to fight us on tax cuts for business and fight us on jobs. We'll fight him here and we'll fight him at the next election on a platform that supports Australian business, Australian investment, Australian exports and the Australian jobs that he has abandoned.