House debates Questions without Notice

Treasurer

Wednesday, 14 October 2026 House of Representatives

Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition

2:19 pm

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today we learnt the Prime Minister was forced to step in and clean up the Treasurer's botched ban on small businesses using credit cards to pay their tax bills, just like he was forced to step in and clean up the Treasurer's botched attempts to tax unrealised capital gains and small businesses. How much more humiliation does the Treasurer have to endure before the Prime Minister puts him out of his misery and sacks him?

Opposition members interjecting —

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting. The Leader of the Opposition has asked his question.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

2:20 pm

I really do thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question. The whole premise of it is completely wrong. The Treasurer and I had a discussion last week. We convened the Expenditure Review Committee and we unanimously, right across the leadership of the government, agreed that the decision by the ATO, to have a limited period of pause on the ban that had been imposed, needed to be extended so that there would be proper consultation with small business. That was completely agreed by the Treasurer and me, in a way that was consistent with how we do good government—having a discussion between ministers and then convening appropriate forums, in this case the Expenditure Review Committee last Friday, and then making public the announcement, which the Treasurer did last Friday. I find it absolutely extraordinary that, at a time when there is someone—a former treasurer—stalking this former shadow treasurer as we speak, he asked the question.

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

The member for Forrest is now warned.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

The bloke who is in danger of being sacked is sitting right there. You have the member for Canning working away. You have Josh Frydenberg out there, on the book tour. He's putting aside his shyness, Josh Frydenberg.

Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition

Relevance, Mr Speaker—the question was about when this Prime Minister would sack his hapless Treasurer.

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

It's a pretty broad political question, so, if you ask those sorts of questions, there'll be a fairly broad answer. And the Prime Minister has a lot to work with here.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

This Treasurer is like every member of the Australian Labor Party. Our version of aspiration is health, housing, jobs and opportunity. The Liberal Party version of aspiration is Josh Frydenberg. There he is, a failed treasurer who couldn't even hold his seat, overcoming his innate shyness to be out there. You can't turn on a TV without seeing Josh Frydenberg. He's out there every single day performing—'Josh around the clock' really is what it is, as we go forward. I'm looking forward to seeing more interviews. (Time expired)