Turnbull pans Labor’s lack of business expertise

Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Labor as a party overrun with ‘trade union officials and political apparatchiks’.

Malcolm Turnbull said Labor had embraced an ‘anti-aspirational, anti-business policy of higher taxes’. Picture: Kym Smith

Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Labor as a party overrun with “trade union officials and political apparatchiks”, warning that it lacked the business experience on its frontbench to manage another financial crisis.

The Prime Minister said Labor had embraced an “anti-aspirational, anti-business policy of higher taxes” that would fail to grow ­opportunities for small business owners and accused the opposition of campaigning on Bill Shorten’s “left-wing platform”.

“I thought that was one of the reasons they mishandled the ­global financial crisis so badly, ­because they didn’t have any business background in their cabinet,” Mr Turnbull said. “It’s very important to understand the scale of the threat that Bill Shorten represents to our nation and to our economy and to the opportunities for young Australians.

“He wants to increase taxes on small and medium businesses, while we’re reducing them. He wants to increase taxes on family businesses. He wants to increase taxes on property. He wants to increase taxes on investment.”

Mr Shorten — who is due to ­address the West Australian state Labor conference today where he is expected to discuss GST reform — yesterday attempted to mend his relations with the small business community.

Speaking at the Council of Small Business Australia small business summit in Melbourne, Mr Shorten defended Labor against attacks it would negatively target the small business sector by reversing penalty rate cuts, overhauling the treatment of discretionary trusts and increasing taxes on high-income earners.

Mr Shorten’s speech came in the wake of criticism from Scott Morrison that Labor MPs lacked “real-world experience” with just three members of the opposition frontbench listing any experience in small business as part of their work history.

Referencing his own business experience, Mr Shorten cited his father’s profession as a marine ­engineer and his own pre-union employment history as a “paperboy” and working at a butcher’s shop, where he cleaned trays.

Mr Shorten pledged to crack down on phoenix companies and black economy operators while ­reassessing government procurement policies to ensure small businesses had the chance to win more work. However, he refused to commit to the government’s already legislated tax cuts for businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million, saying it was a “$65 billion tax giveaway”.

“Taking $65bn out of the Australian budget without replacement revenue — or an offset cut to expenditure. That is reckless,” he said.

Mr Shorten defended his crackdown on income splitting within discretionary trusts. “We cannot continue to allow high-wealth individuals who use discretionary trusts purely as a vehicle for minimising their income tax. It’s not sustainable,” Mr Shorten said.

Opposition agricultural spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon — who ran an auto-electrical business between 1982 and 1994 — yesterday said that running a business “had a ­significant impact on my personal development”.