E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
CHANNEL 7, SUNRISE
WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2016
SUBJECT/S: Malcolm Turnbull’s Budget for big business over battlers.
DAVID KOCH: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is with me. Good morning to you.
BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Good morning David.
KOCH: What do you like about the Budget?
SHORTEN: Well, on national security, we've got the same point of view. I'm pleased that they've adopted some of our Budget repair measures including tobacco excise and tackling high end superannuation. We've been calling for a year to take real action on multinational tax avoidance. So that's - they're positive. But what really disappoints me about the Budget is that if you are a millionaire, if you're earning $1 million, you will get a $17,000 tax cut but if you earn less than $80,000, you don't earn a cent. This is something which puts the millionaires ahead of the battlers, the high income earners do much better than families.
KOCH: Okay, the logic of the Prime Minister and I put this to him a little earlier saying the average family gets nothing out of this. He's saying that by creating a stronger economy with more jobs, that creates opportunity, that there doesn't need to be handouts and that would be irresponsible.
SHORTEN: Well, that’s - Malcolm Turnbull is seriously out of touch with average families. When he says that cutting the family payment, the tax benefit payments to a family on $60,000 a year which will cost them north of $3,000, so they lose that and then saying the best way he can help that family who he is taking money away from is to help millionaires get an extra $17,000. That's a seriously out of touch view from a seriously out of touch Prime Minister.
KOCH: What about the key plank of the budget and that is small business, to encourage small business through this internship program to take on young workers and also to give them a tax cut, hopefully to pass on those gains in higher wages and more employment. Do you agree with that?
SHORTEN: Well, we agree that reducing the tax burden on small businesses who have a turnover of less than $2 million, that's something which we support. Because we like to put small businesses and families first, but what the Prime Minister's doing is he's pulling the wrong lever at the wrong time. He's proposing to give massive tax cuts to bigger businesses, yet at the same time, he's not funding our hospitals properly, he's not funding our school properly and there's nothing in it for middle and lower income earners. What he's effectively saying is that if you are a large company, or if you earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, we are going to cut your taxes. He's offered the price of a cup of coffee and maybe a biscuit, that's the $6 a week tax cut for half a million people on $80,000, but 75 per cent of the people who go to work today, earn less than $80,000. There's no incentive for them. And in fact, they're losing money through the cuts to the bulk billing and family payments and not properly funding their kids' schools.
KOCH: The election is going to be called this weekend. In the interested of fairness, I did it to the Prime Minister, not going to be accused of bias. Look straight down that camera. Your elevator pitch, 60 second, why people should vote for you.
SHORTEN: Labor's got positive plans for jobs, healthcare, education, real action on climate change through focusing on renewable energy. We're determined to give first homeowners a level playing field to compete to buy for their first home with the property speculators. Labor will put people first through prioritising proper funding for our schools, where every child and every school gets every opportunity. And we'll make sure it's your Medicare card not your credit card that determines the level of health care you get in Australia.
KOCH: Bill Shorten thanks for joining us. Good luck with the election.
SHORTEN: Thanks Kochie, I'll see you on the trail.
ENDS
