Malcolm Turnbull's hip phrases like "flexible seven-day economy" might appeal to venture capitalists, but when they feed into a policy mindset that supports an attack on penalty rates it's suddenly not so endearing, writes Tim Dunlop.

Our new Prime Minister does a great line in Silicon Valley techno start-up babble:

The Australia of the future has to be a nation that is agile, that is innovative, that is creative. We can't be defensive, we can't future-proof ourselves. We have to recognise that the disruption that we see driven by technology, the volatility in change is our friend if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.

So sexy!

This sort of language might endear the PM to his base at Fin Review, but it flies in the face of his claim to want to treat citizens like adults.

As Paula Matthewson noted the other day, "Malcolm Turnbull has promised advocacy instead of slogans ... to listen and be open to new ideas, and to treat voters as adults by having a national conversation about the need for reform and what those changes will entail."

Well, Mr Turnbull, that's great. But if you really believe it, you're going to have to stop quoting your hipster venture-capitalist phrasebook.

I mean, it kind of works if you think of Australia as a cheeky little tech start-up aimed at making a few early investors rich when they sell it to Facebook as part of their "exit strategy".

It's a little less endearing when you remember that Australia isn't actually a tech start-up and is, you know, a country.

Such language encourages a particular mindset to seep into our understanding of how to run the government. Or rather, the use of such language betrays a very particular approach to policy issues.

This became apparent when Mr Turnbull spoke the other day about penalty rates. Again, we got a variation of the "new economy" sexy talk:

Mr Turnbull on Tuesday described the Sunday penalty rate, which is double a regular hourly wage compared to the Saturday time-and-a-half rate, as a hallmark of the old economy.

"The only reason they're different, I assume, is history," Mr Turnbull told Melbourne radio 3AW.

"I think over time you will see a move to a more flexible workplace the transition to that..." Mr Turnbull said before host Neil Mitchell interjected: "It's a seven day economy isn't it?"

"Of course it is," the Prime Minister agreed.

Throwing around words like "flexible" and "seven-day economy" doesn't magically make your argument more compelling or the outcome of reduced wages more palatable.

Let's be clear: a cut in penalties isn't inevitable because of the "seven-day economy". The only thing that makes such a cut inevitable is capitulation to the neoliberal mantra of "reform".

Unfortunately, this capitulation is already in train and it is coming from the very people who should be most opposed.