Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business and General Business Tax Break) Bill 2009. Whilst I certainly do not want to waste the time I have in this debate to respond to the member for Moncrieff I will make two points. One of them is that, prior to entering this House, for some 40 years leading up to that time I operated a small business and I have been associated with small business since leaving school. I would also say that, when it comes to pretenders in respect of who are the friends of small business, the pretenders are the members of the coalition.

I want to reflect on a comment that was made by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government earlier on when he was speaking about nation building. He made the comment that in the first 18 months of this government being in office we have spent more on infrastructure than the previous coalition government did in all of their 12 years. The same statement could apply when it comes to small business. The Rudd Labor government have in fact done more in their first 18 months in office to support small business than the previous coalition government did in 12 years. I can say that, as I was someone who was a small business operator for that 12 years and was directly affected by the policies of the Howard coalition government at the time. As someone who does understand what it is like to operate a small business, I certainly welcome the initiatives of the Rudd Labor government, including the one I am about to speak to.

This bill provides a temporary bonus income tax deduction of originally 30 per cent of the cost of an asset if the asset is acquired between 13 December 2008 and 13 June 2009 and the asset is installed ready for use before the end of June 2010. As we heard last night, when the Treasurer was delivering the budget, that 30 per cent figure has now been increased to 50 per cent for those businesses that have a turnover of less than $2 million per annum, and the offer of 50 per cent has been extended until 31 December of this year.

The bonus tax deduction is in addition to the normal depreciation deduction for assets for which capital allowance deduction is available under the core provisions of division 40 of the Income Tax Assessment Act or new expenditure on existing eligible assets. To qualify for the tax deduction a minimum expenditure of $1,000 must be made by a small business and a minimum expenditure of $10,000 must be made by all other businesses. For business assets acquired between 1 July 2009 and the end of December 2009 a bonus tax deduction of 10 per cent of the asset’s cost will be provided if the asset is installed and ready for use by the end of December 2010 and it is a business of over $2 million turnover per annum. These are very sensible and very welcome measures for the Australian business sector during the current economic downturn.

It was interesting to hear the member for Moncrieff on the one hand telling us how he had been lobbied and pestered effectively by small businesses that he talks to about whether this legislation is going to get through, and then on the other hand suggesting that it has limited value. You cannot have it both ways. Businesses would not be contacting you wanting to know whether you are going to support it if they did not think it was legislation that was going to be in their interest.

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