Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for her contribution to small business development in this country, because she ran a small business for seven years and an association that represented small businesses. So I say thank you very much to the member for Parramatta.

This is a budget of nation building for recovery. The budget is supporting jobs today by building the infrastructure Australia needs for tomorrow. The Commonwealth Treasury advises that up to 210,000 Australians would be out of work if not for the stimulus packages that we have initiated and for this budget. We have made the tough savings to deliver the lowest level of net debt of all major advanced economies.

In respect of small business, the budget boosts incentives and support for small businesses by well over $500 million. I will go through some of the measures. The government will increase the small business tax break from 30 per cent to 50 per cent and extend it from 30 June this year until the end of the year. Small business owners around Australia in the forums that I have been doing for the last few months tell me that what they really need is some extra advice during the global economic recession, and we are responding to that with a small business support line at a cost of $10 million so that they get that timely advice and support that they need.

The budget also provides another $10 million to establish a small business online program—maybe the member for Higgins could take advantage of that with his new, you-beaut website—so that small businesses are really well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the National Broadband Network. There is a new research and development tax credit, which will double the incentive for small businesses to undertake research and development in this country. I remind members here that when the Howard-Costello government came to office in 1996, they cut that R&D tax concession from 150 per cent to 125 per cent. This restores the effective rate of support for small businesses to undertake research and development back up to an effective 150 per cent. That is very good news for small business. I could spend more time going through a whole range of other initiatives that are contained in this budget for small business.

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