Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note that the minister at the table, the member for Petrie, has a very strong and proud small business tradition in her family as well. In the Labor Party, there might be one or two members who have some loose connection to the small business sector. On occasion one of them may have walked into a small business to purchase an ice-cream or something, so they stand up here and boast about their small business connections. Unlike that lot who sit on the other side of the chamber, on this side of the House there are a number of people—the vast majority of people—who come from various backgrounds in the small business sector and who are proud to be advocates for the small business sector.

Collectively, this government knows one key truth about Australian small business people—that they are a pretty good mob. We know that small businesses, as employers, recognise that one of the greatest assets they have is their people. They recognise, as employers, that they have a responsibility to their employees. All they ask in return is that their employees have the same sense of regard for them as employers. When it comes to unfair dismissal, this is one of the lightning rod issues for the small business sector. Small business people know that if they have a good person they do not simply dismiss them. They would not flick them away; they know that that person adds value to their business. And any good employee is going to be looked after, rewarded and encouraged in a small business environment.

The Australian Labor Party travel around Australia stirring up trouble for the small business sector. They say to employees, in some kind of 1970s reference to class warfare, ‘You should be careful; you’ll be exploited by your small business bosses.’ That is the rhetoric that the Australian Labor Party like to throw about the place as they travel through the community trying to poison the minds of small business employees: ‘Be aware, be afraid and be very curious when it comes to your employer because they’ll exploit you.’ We see time after time the Australian Labor Party in question time trying to paint employers as some kind of negative force in the economy. The fact is that small business proprietors and the employees that they work closely with are the backbone of the Australian economy. If that is a cliche, it is because it is a universal truth that all Australians recognise—small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy. This government is very proud to stand in their corner and say to small businesses, ‘We will be in your corner and undertake initiatives that make your lot easier.’

The rhetoric from the Australian Labor Party does not wash. Their feigned concern for the small business sector does not wash because, when the rubber hits the road, we know the Australian Labor Party would stamp down on small businesses and roll back its unfair dismissal laws across all small businesses. There was even a hint of that from the member for Werriwa. He said, when he was talking about unfair dismissal laws, that this government has it wrong because this government’s unfair dismissal laws will go for businesses with one up to 100 employees, and that covers 98 per cent of businesses. Those were the member for Werriwa’s words. I invited him to make further comment about his thoughts but he stayed clear of it, inviting the implicit assumption that in some way it should not be businesses with 100 employees but maybe with 50, 25 or only 10. The criticism that was implied in that comment was that covering businesses with one to 100 employees, therefore covering 98 per cent of businesses, was in some way a negative thing. We see, masked in the language that was used by the member for Werriwa, the desire of the Australian Labor Party to roll that number down. Who knows where it would be? We know that, traditionally, the Australian Labor Party have remained steadfastly opposed to any exemptions from unfair dismissal. I do not think they have actually settled their policy with respect to what they would do for small businesses. I raise that as a significant point of caution to the small business sector in Australia.

On a more positive note, I wanted to address comprehensively the concerns that were raised by the member for Werriwa, so I am pleased to talk in some measure about the benefits in this bill. This bill is just another step down the path that this government has been taking for nearly 12 years to improve the lives of small businesses owners in Australia. We do it on a macro scale through our good governance of the Australian economy. This government have been able to pay off $96 billion of Labor Party debt and create the right economic conditions to ensure that Australians have more disposable income and a greater ability to accept risk, in a low interest rate environment. Those are the building blocks that this government has put in place for Australia’s small business sector.

Again, I reinforce that on every single one of these measures the Australian Labor Party has opposed us. When it came to paying off the debt, the Labor Party opposed us. When it came to reducing the tax burden on Australians so that they had more disposable income, the Labor Party opposed us. When it came to introducing the GST as part of the meaningful reform we needed to have to ensure that this country continued to grow strongly, the Labor Party opposed us. We recall that for years they ran around Australia saying, ‘We’ll roll back GST,’ and then they promptly dumped it. The Labor Party do not have any kind of philosophical compass when it comes to these things. Instead they dip their toes into the public pool to try to determine where the tide is going—that is their only measure on these kinds of philosophical issues.

This government put in place in a very constructive and thoughtful way the building blocks and reforms that were necessary to get Australia to where it is today—the key ingredients for making the small business sector as vibrant as it is today. The benefits of that are enjoyed by all Australians. We have the lowest unemployment rate in 32 years. That did not happen by accident. Unemployment has not accidentally dropped to 4.4 per cent. It was at 11 per cent under the Australian Labor Party. Interest rates were at 17 per cent or, if you were in small business, 22 or 23 per cent under the Australian Labor Party. It is not by accident that unemployment is now down to 4.4 per cent and interest rates are down to around seven per cent. It is a consequence of the building blocks this government put it place, opposed at each and every step by the Australian Labor Party. That is how this government has been helping the small business sector at the macro level.

At the micro level, I have been pleased that this bill follows a long list of beneficial changes for the small business sector. In this bill we see what at law is perhaps slightly complex but in reality, when it comes to the compliance framework that small businesses have to follow, has a very beneficial impact for all small businesses. This law brings into alignment a whole spate of separate eligibility tests that currently exist with respect to the goods and services tax, the simplified tax system, capital gains tax, fringe benefits tax and the pay-as-you-go instalments. Each of these small business concessions as they exist under each of these different laws is now being brought into alignment.

I am pleased the Australian Labor Party are supporting this initiative, as well they should. I have a hint for the Australian Labor Party: you should back any initiative this government puts forward for small business. I assure the Australian Labor Party that there is not a single idea that they could come up with that would actually be beneficial for the small business sector, so I would suggest they back this government’s initiatives each and every time. The shadow Assistant Treasurer boasted that government members should join the Labor Party on this bill. I would say to him that that would be one of the worst mistakes that any government member could make. I doubt that any government member would make that mistake, because passing this law will have a beneficial impact on small businesses and, more importantly, will help, as I said, in the journey of making the lot of small business owners, risk takers and entrepreneurs in Australia a lot better.

With respect to some of the local initiatives that I am talking about on the Gold Coast, I have been particularly proud of two key initiatives that were taken that will improve the small business sector. The member for Werriwa spoke about the Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund. On the Gold Coast the RRIF, as it is commonly referred to, has seen a Seamless Borders project put in place to try to cut through the Labor Party duplicity at a state level that sees one set of laws applying to small businesses in Queensland and, just across the Tweed Heads border, a different set of laws under a different state Labor government. Here is a fictitious example: if you were Joe’s Potting, based at Coolangatta, you would need to comply with one set of laws that applied in Queensland and a second set of laws in New South Wales. The headaches that causes for business are profound. Under the Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund I have been very pleased to see the Seamless Borders project—which the Minister for Small Business and Tourism, Fran Bailey, launched recently on the Gold Coast—rolled out to make the lot for Gold Coast small businesses much better.

The other key initiative that this government took—which I was pleased to announce recently on the Gold Coast—was full funding for a small business field officer based in the area consultative committee on the Gold Coast and working directly with local Gold Coast small businesses to improve and provide information to them and to develop relationships with small business up and down the Gold Coast. Again, the area consultative committees are bodies that the Australian Labor Party would abolish. The Australian Labor Party has said it does not believe in the area consultative committees and that they would like to abolish them. So I can say directly to small business operators on the Gold Coast: if the Labor Party were elected, you would lose your small business assistance officer, your small business field officer, currently based—together with the area consultative committee—on the Gold Coast. Again, this is another direct threat of the Australian Labor Party to small businesses in my city.

With respect to the steps that this government has taken for small businesses, I highlight the fact that, in bringing these various eligibility tests into alignment in this bill, we are not making small, tokenistic changes, but substantial changes. In fact, the bill will amend the income tax law to create a single definition of small business based on an aggregated turnover of less than $2 million per year, which is effectively a doubling of the current threshold test that applies under some of the various measures that are currently in existence. We are doubling that, basically, to an aggregated turnover threshold of $2 million and applying it in an even and consistent way across each of these various taxation regimes. Of course, there still will exist various qualifying criteria that are taken into account when obtaining these small business concessions, but in broad terms—and I do not intend to get into all the detail of the bill—this will make it a lot simpler for small businesses.

The final point that I would like to touch upon is the GST. I have seen members opposite get quite animated and excited when I have spoken about the GST. I have seen members opposite talk about how, in some way, the GST was a negative for business. Not only is the opposition not going to make any changes there; I remind you that it was the Australian Labor Party that introduced complexity in the GST from the outset by refusing to have one blanket rate that applied across the board. Because of the Labor Party’s opposition, this government, in order to secure the passage of this much needed reform back in the year 2000, had to sit down with the Australian Democrats and try to knuckle out some kind of deal—and that is when food was exempted. If there has been anything that has had an impact on complexity for small businesses, it is the fact that we have exemptions under the GST, which leaves a number of small businesses with all sorts of headaches when it comes to compliance. Over the years they have worked through that. Over the years accounting packages have taken these different measures into account, but you still cannot escape the root cause of this added complexity, which was the Australian Labor Party’s stubbornness in accepting this reform as being necessary, crucial and fundamentally important.

If you scratch a little deeper, you discover that the Australian Labor Party actually believed in the GST, but the reason it opposed it back then was that it thought it was politically opportunistic to do so. That is the ultimate indictment on the Australian Labor Party when it comes to the small business sector. The ultimate indictment is that, even though the Australian Labor Party knew it was good policy, it opposed it because it was politically opportunistic to do so. As a consequence of that politically opportunistic barrier that the Australian Labor Party put up, the small business sector is now cursed with this additional compliance burden that they have to meet. But, as I said, over the last six years they have come to meet that burden and to do so in a sterling way. I would say to the Australia Labor Party: I certainly hope that it does not make it any more complex.

In summary, I commend this bill to the House for being a very positive step forward, for nearly doubling the threshold amount up to $2 million, for bringing into alignment the goods and services tax, a simplified tax system, the capital gains tax and fringe benefits tax and the pay-as-you-go instalments thresholds for the small business sector. I remind small businesses of the very direct and real threat that the Australian Labor Party presents to them with the changes to the unfair dismissal laws that they would like to reintroduce at the bidding of their union masters. I say to them that I will continue to be a strong advocate of the small business sector and for a city that truly is the small business capital in this country.

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