Speaking before heading to the APEC summit in Peru, he promoted the benefits of open trade and investment policies, including restating the case for a $48 billion tax cut for business over the next decade.
Telling attendees Australia risks becoming a victim of its own economic success after 25 years of economic growth, he says Australia must remain globally competitive.
"The need to undertake reforms that will deliver long-term gains for all Australians which may create winners and losers in the near term, isn't keenly felt in many parts of Australian society. We risk becoming victims of a complacency that fails to recognise the hard work that enabled our economic success and the need for it to continue if that success is to be enduring."
Mr Turnbull said making budget savings, rather than raising the overall tax burden, is not just a matter of economic priority but one of "fairness".
The parliament has passed $12 billion in budget improvements, as well as tax cuts for middle-income earners.
The more you tax investment, he says, the less investment you get and in a globally competitive world, investment can go anywhere.
"We need also to capitalise on this moment in the global economy by seeking out new openings for trade and investment. Countries that have embraced open trade and investment policies have experienced, as we know, significant gains in income, employment and living standards. In our own region, this has lifted billions out of poverty."
The Prime Minister argues the world must continue to embrace free trade.
"To overcome disquiet we must ensure that the benefits of open markets deliver and are seen to deliver for all Australians and not just a few. And if the results of the recent election in the United States have taught us anything, it is that policy changes must be fair and be seen to be fair in a very broad sense."
He also restated the case for a corporate tax rate-cut.
Jennifer Westacott, from the Business Council of Australia, agrees, telling the ABC businesses in Australia generate 80 per cent of economic activity and employ 10 million people.
She says if they're not competitive with the rest of the world, Australian businesses will suffer.
"An economy like ours, a small, open, competitive economy, will not flourish if it has got a tax rate that is at 30 per cent when the British have gone to 20 (and are) going to 17. The Asian average is 22. The OECD average is 25 and now the Americans are proposing, under president-elect Trump to go from 35 to 15. If we don't do something about this, we will flounder as a country."
Opposition leader Bill Shorten says the Prime Minister is out of touch.
"Malcolm Turnbull is talking about putting the jobs of big business and big banks first with a Donald Trump-style $50 billion corporate tax cut. Last night, Mr Turnbull caught up with some of his friends from the big business end of town and he decided to start talking about fairness, gave one of his trademark lectures, to explain to everyone else in Australia what Malcolm Turnbull thinks is fair. Mr Turnbull doesn't understand fairness. Fairness is not cutting Medicare. Fairness is not complaining about the wages of construction workers. Fairness is not giving a $50 billion tax cut to big business."
