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

and I think, in deference to you, Mr Speaker, I should not spend another quarter of an hour going through that, which would be a mercy to the coalition. But I do make this point: the initiatives contained in the budget build on the $42 billion stimulus package—a nation-building economic stimulus package which we call a ‘tradies package’ because two-thirds of that stimulus is to build infrastructure in Australia, whether it is in our schools or on our roads or local council infrastructure. That is very important to support our tradies.

I am very disappointed, again, with the shadow Treasurer, who said that this is far too much money and that the coalition would not spend anywhere near that money on supporting tradies and supporting small businesses. Of course, we know that the Leader of the Opposition will put into his budget reply speech tomorrow night some references to small business—how they love small business and how they support small business—but we have the shadow Treasurer saying that, no, they would not put anywhere near the sort of money that we would put into the tradies package to support our small businesses. He has been a constant carping critic of our small business tax break, saying, ‘No-one will take that up.’ An Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey for the March quarter shows that 31 per cent of businesses have said that they will bring forward investment in plant and equipment to take advantage of that tax break. If they were doing that when the rate was 30 per cent, imagine what they are going to do when the rate is 50 per cent. This is a very strong initiative for small business.

It is not just me saying this; it is the Council of Small Business of Australia, who said that ‘small business is recognised as the backbone of Australia’s economy in budget 2009’. We have the Master Builders of Australia saying that they ‘welcome the increase in the small business investment tax allowance from the current level of 30 per cent to 50 per cent’.

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