Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House why it is important to back small and family and medium businesses and not penalise those who seek to create jobs for all Australians? Is the Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question and I acknowledge the passionate advocacy he brings for small business in his community. Of course, coming from a small-business background himself, he knows exactly about the enterprise, the determination and the confidence that is required for thousands of small businesses across Australia to invest, to employ and to get ahead. What we have under our economic plan, which is working and delivering more jobs and stronger economic growth, is a plan that delivers lower taxes and delivers the incentives for businesses to invest and get ahead.

The Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues in the Labor Party love to talk about 'the top end of town'. Is he seriously suggesting—that's what they're saying, 'the top end of town'—that a business with a turnover of between $10 million and $50 million is at the top end of town? It's like calling somebody who earns $90,000 a year a multimillionaire. Well, the Labor Party believe that as well. They are so out of touch with what makes Australia work. It is hard work. It is enterprise. It's investment. It's the private sector. It's the aspiration that mystifies the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The business that needs to be supported, as the member for Grayndler knows, is being undermined and assaulted every day by the Leader of the Opposition.

I mentioned the member for Grayndler. There's a great Australian business in his electorate—aussieBum; it makes underwear—founded by Sean Ashby. He says that the attack on his business, and thousands like it, will undermine the future of his business. This is a guy who started a business from scratch. The big retailers didn't believe in him. He went online. He's won the award for Australia's leading e-commerce exporter. He's got over 30 jobs there and he wants to grow. He wants to keep growing. And he's funding his business from retained earnings, as all these family businesses are. So the reduction in company tax that his company is benefiting from now enables him to invest more, to grow, to build his markets both at home and overseas and to employ more people. The question he asked about the Labor Party was:

I just wonder if they would be so forthcoming if they had to explain how repealing the tax cut is going to benefit my business and more importantly my suppliers and my staff.

The member for Grayndler needs to stand up for Sean Ashby and aussieBum. He does.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

He does. He knows him.

Honourable members interjecting—

Well, he'll have an interesting chat with Sean. I was speaking to him just a few minutes ago, and he shares your views about your leader. (Time expired)