Labor attack ad targets Malcolm Turnbull’s wealth

Malcolm Turnbull hits back over an ALP attack ad targeting his wealth and how much he will benefit from tax cuts | WATCH

Malcolm Turnbull says the Labor Party is “abandoning everything it used to stand for”, after the party released an ad attacking the Prime Minister for being a beneficiary of company tax cuts.

Mr Turnbull said the ad, released this week as part of the opposition’s “Super Saturday” by-election campaigning, showed Labor did not want people to be successful.

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He said Bill Shorten’s class warfare strategy was an aberration to the pro-business attitudes of Labor luminaries Paul Keating, Bob Hawke and the late Neville Wran.

“(The ads) just appear to be an example of how the Labor Party is just abandoning everything it used to stand for,” Mr Turnbull said.

“They want to attack me for having a quid, they want to attack me and Lucy for working hard, investing, having a go, making money, paying tax, paying plenty of tax, giving back to the community, which we do.

“That is apparently not the Labor way anymore. You are not allowed to have a go or be successful.”

Prime Minister @TurnbullMalcolm: @AustralianLabor wants to attack Lucy & I for having a quid. Labor has turned on everything it stood for. Neville Wran, Bob Hawke or Paul Keating would be horrified by @billshortenmp's politics of envy.

MORE: https://t.co/qpyTIxcCeK #FirstEdition pic.twitter.com/TVt4d2WFoj

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 24, 2018

The television ad attacks Mr Turnbull as being a beneficiary of the big business tax cut because of his investments.

“Turnbull has millions invested in funds which hold shares in dozens of big businesses that would benefit from the tax cuts,” the ad says. “Why is former banker Malcolm Turnbull so keen to give big business a tax cut instead of properly funding our schools and hospitals? Who exactly is he looking after?

“Is he just for the top end of town?”

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack this morning labelled the ad as “class warfare writ large”, believing it will backfire on the Opposition Leader.

“It is just typical Labor and the fact is many nurses, many police officers, many emergency workers, many school teachers, they have all got share portfolios,” Mr McCormack told ABC radio. “They are all relying on the banks and big business to do well.”

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the personal nature of Labor’s attack ad on Mr Turnbull crossed a line. “You would really have to wonder whether the likes of Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen support this type of personal petty politics or whether in fact this is just another sign of desperation from Bill Shorten as he gets into the gutter in terms of the type of politics that he plays,” Senator Birmingham told Sky News.

“It overlooks the fact that Mr Shorten himself is a major investor in AustralianSuper, has shares in all the major banks himself and will actually have circumstances where he may financially benefit from the passage of the enterprise tax plan, as indeed would millions upon millions of Australians.”

A still from the Labor ad.

Opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers defended the ad this morning, arguing it was “legitimate for us to point out that Malcolm Turnbull always sides with the top end of town”.

“One of the reasons we have this system of disclosure is so that people can make an assessment of the various influences that someone like Malcolm Turnbull brings to the policy debate,” Mr Chalmers told ABC radio.

“He brings a certain background, certain influences to his job as Prime Minister.

“He has been an investment banker, that is a fact, that is his career background I am not making necessarily a judgment on that except to say he always sides with the millionaires and the multinationals over Middle Australia and that is the main point that the ad is making and I am entirely comfortable with that.”

Mr Turnbull’s pecuniary interest register shows through at least 15 of his 39 managed funds, he invests in 18 firms that have a turnover of more than $50 million.

A further 14 businesses have a turnover of more than $1 billion a year. Labor says this shows the prime minister stands to profit from his company tax cut plan.