E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PROSERPINE
MONDAY, 3 APRIL 2017
SUBJECT/S: Visit to Proserpine and Airlie Beach Recovery Centre; Turnbull Government’s $50 billion tax handout to big business.
BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I'm up in Proserpine and I'll be visiting Airlie Beach as well to see how the disaster recovering is going, how the clean-up is working, how all the measures to help people who have lost power and had their economic livelihoods affected. I'm here with Senator Anthony Chisolm, we are determined to make sure that now that the cyclone has moved on that people don't get forgotten. The storm was a terrible thing to go through but now we've got to make sure that people get the support they need to get back on their feet as soon as possible. I'm certainly up here as well to encourage Australians that now the place is getting cleaned up they should look at having a holiday in The Whitsundays this winter. All the people in south should escape the weather and come up to The Whitsundays, one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Australia.
QUESTION: On company tax cuts, are you concerned about how much it would cost the Budget?
SHORTEN: Well, we think that giving away a $50 billion tax giveaway to big business is the wrong priority for Australia. Mr Turnbull is now going to have explain to Australians where is the money coming from to replace the tax handouts that have been given to business and to big business? Mr Turnbull has to explain to Australians what priorities he's going to cut in order to pay for the tax giveaway of tens of billions of dollars to medium and big business. Mr Turnbull needs to explain in the budget - is he going to cut Medicare, is he going to cut funding to schools, is he going to cut funding to family payments or to pensioners? Running these tax cuts is all about priorities. Mr Turnbull has got the wrong priorities. He's looking after the big end of town and Labor makes no apology for our priorities, standing up for Medicare, standing up for working and middle class families, standing up for pensioners. These tax cuts are all the wrong priority, they're not funded and Mr Turnbull will have to explain in the Budget how he can afford to give away so much money to just one section of the community.
ENDS
