Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 3) Bill 2009. This bill, as happens so often, amends by schedule a number of provisions in relation to tax and a variety of different pieces of legislation. Schedule 4 talks about three new organisations for deductibility for the purpose of gifts. Schedule 3 amends the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act, implementing four minor measures to reduce compliance costs and provide a number of concessions for interested taxpayers. Schedule 2 allows taxpayers who are voluntarily registered for GST and who choose to pay their GST annually to also make their PAYG instalments annually if they satisfy other sorts of tests for the purpose of eligibility for annual PAYG instalments, and it has the consequence of reducing compliance costs and regulation for business, and that is a good thing.

I want to talk mainly about schedule 1 and the other measures that the Rudd Labor government is undertaking both nationally and locally to help small business. We are in the most difficult times for 75 years, and it is for all business, whether in the area of real estate, car sales, dentistry, floristry, banking, food outlets or recreational facilities. All those types of outlets, all those types of small businesses who are in my electorate, in small communities such as Kalbar, Boonah, Laidley and Gatton, are facing the challenges of the downturn—not just in Ipswich, which forms the heart of my seat. But it is important that we provide for small business to give them confidence for our nation’s future. We need to be able to support small business at this very difficult time.

There is a great myth in Australian politics that the coalition somehow is the great saviour or advocate of small business. That is simply nonsense. The truth of the matter is that during their long tenure under Menzies they installed a Hansonite protectionist system supported by Black Jack McEwen, supported by the likes of Gorton, McMahon, Menzies and Holt, which served to straightjacket Australian business, profitability and the economic development of Australian business. They did not support small business. It was the Whitlam Labor government that brought in the Trade Practices Act and started the internationalisation of the Australian economy. It was the case that the Hawke and Keating governments internationalised our economy; made us internationally competitive; brought in superannuation, which helped so many people in this country; floated the dollar; reduced tariff barriers; and opened up the banking system—all of which was good for this country. It is the reality of Australian politics, rather than the myth, that Labor governments are the governments which are pro free enterprise, pro free trade and pro free market. It is a myth because those opposite support, invariably by their policies, big business and oligarchs.

You can see it in their opposition on many occasions. They are in opposition, simply, to our stimulus package—that is quite clear—because our stimulus package helps small business. What we are doing for small business, for the many small businesses in my electorate and for the four million people that are employed by the 1.9 small businesses across the country, is to support them in this hour of need. Those opposite, the coalition—the great saviours, the great advocates, of small business—oppose the stimulus package which simply was there to support and help small business, to give them a helping hand. They opposed it.

They oppose every person employed, for example, at the RAAF base at Amberley in my electorate, with the $60 million that we put in there; everyone who benefits from the Defence Housing Authority’s 133 new homes; everyone who benefits from the $30 million in the BER funding in my electorate; the tradesmen, the electricians, the plumbers, the carpenters and all those people who are employed by the Rudd Labor government. That is the reality of political life in this country. Us supporting small business, supporting free enterprise, supporting economic welfare and development in local communities across the country—that is the reality of political life, not the mythology perpetrated and perpetuated by those who sit on the coalition benches. That is the reality of Australian political life, the polity of this country and the economy of this country. We are the ones who have done what we need to do to support small business. It is clear: in our budget we support it. We support consumption. Our stimulus packages helped the businesses in our area.

When I went around the various shopping centres doing mobile offices in places like Riverlink in Ipswich, the Brassall Shopping Centre, Yamanto Shopping Village and Winston Glades, I spoke to many small business operators in those shopping centres which are so important in my area. I spoke to the management there. You can see how important helping small business is and how appreciative they were in relation to that. The legislation that we have before the chamber tonight is yet another example of the Rudd Labor government supporting small business, supporting free enterprise and helping businesses to maintain employment and to give people a chance.

We are the ones who support family values. How can it not be a family value to make sure that you can feed and clothe your children, to have a roof over your head? That is family values. That is being pro-family. That is being pro-free-enterprise as well, because business operators are not just members of our community but consumers. They purchase goods and services in our community, which supports small business. So the people who sit on the opposite side of the chamber should have a good look at themselves and at what they do and say in this regard.

I was in business for 20 years before I came to this place. I looked after my business. I built it up with the support of Matthew Turnour, the brother of the member for Leichhardt. Neumann and Turnour Lawyers employed many people. We had many staff. It was a multimillion-dollar operation. So, for those opposite who criticise those of us on this side of the House without business experience, I am not one that they can criticise because I know what it is like to have to meet the payroll, to pay the rent, to deal with telecommunications companies, to pay GST—to pay all these sorts of things, the challenges of small business. I know what it is like. I know it from personal experience.

Schedule 1 of this legislation helps small business in many, many ways. It is basically allowing small business to have $720 million in cash flow, to their benefit, simply from this change. What we are doing here is amending the GDP adjustment factor, which clearly does not represent the true rate of growth in income and profitability in businesses today. We are reducing it from nine per cent down to two per cent, and that means there will be more money in the kitty and the coffers of small business. It ensures that those businesses have more ready cash flow to meet their overdraft and other business requirements. It gives them a chance to invest, it gives them a chance to employ more staff and it gives them a chance to retain staff in the circumstances. The last thing you want to do when you are in business is to put staff off. That is the last thing you want to do. You want to keep your skilled staff, because when the recovery comes it means that you have the people who will return you to profitability, and they are the ones who can increase their productivity all the more readily.

The Rudd government is doing a lot to help small business. We are committed to ensuring small business remains viable and vibrant in all the circumstances. If we did not do what we are doing in terms of our budget and our stimulus packages, we would have 210,000 people out of work, according to Treasury estimates. That is 210,000 people effectively on unemployment benefits who cannot get access to the kind of cash which is necessary to purchase goods and services in small business, and that results in reduced profitability, retrenchment, liquidation, administration and lower corporate and PAYG tax receipts for the federal government. It is a spiral. So it is necessary to support small business. We are committed to that. We are providing more than $500 million in small business incentives and support.

One of the things which has been most readily hailed in my electorate has been the small business tax break. Last Saturday night I was at the Ipswich Art Gallery speaking to a number of small business people. There was the head of the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, Martin Corkery, and James Sturges, who is one of the leading businessmen in Ipswich and the manager of Ross Llewellyn Motors—a great place. I have bought a car or two from them over the years. They were telling me how important the Rudd government’s commitment is to Ipswich and to the economic development of the area but also to business.

James waxed lyrical about the 50 per cent tax deductibility for assets costing more than $1,000, acquired after 13 December 2008 until 31 December 2009 and installed ready to use by 31 December 2010. James told me that they will sell more cars, and have been selling more cars, as a result of the 30 per cent increase. But now he thinks that the 50 per cent is a great thing for the local economy, as businesses purchase vehicles and a local car dealer in the area employs local staff and local people. This tax break will benefit small businesses with a turnover of less than $2 million per annum.

But other things are really important too. Our Small Business Support Line is important and our Small Business Online initiative is also important.

In my local area the Rudd Labor government is committed to small business in a practical way. We have funded for a period of four years the Ipswich Business Enterprise Centre. This helps local business in terms of mentoring, getting access to information and government services, access to finance, and access to the kind of information which will help small business to be profitable, to employ staff and to get started. I know a number of small businesses that have benefited. I spoke to Cindy Baker, who told me fairly recently in a meeting I had at the Ipswich Business Enterprise Centre, how enthusiastic she was and how enthusiastic has been the response locally in Ipswich and also the rural areas outside. It is interesting that the Ipswich Business Enterprise Centre was launched in the Lockyer Valley. It is important that we have representation from various chambers of commerce on the board that runs it. So I am pleased that the Ipswich Business Enterprise Centre is up and running effectively now and providing help for small business in the area.

Why is that important? Ipswich is growing faster than any other area in Queensland. The ABS data in the last 12 months shows that Ipswich is growing at four per cent. The federal electorate of Blair and its neighbour, Oxley, are just simply booming in population. The Ipswich part of my electorate will grow from about 64,000 voters to about 78,000 in the next couple of years. That is just the Ipswich part alone. In neighbouring Oxley it will grow from about 28,000 to 43,000 voters, and that is not counting children and other residents who are not Australian citizens entitled to vote. The truth is that we need a new classroom in Ipswich every week, such is the growth in population. So the commitment of the Rudd Labor government to small business in our community is simply stark. It is real, it is accessible to people, and it is very open and honest.

When I talk to the principals at various schools I can see that the BER funding is also having a big impact in terms of local businesses, and they are very enthusiastic about what it can do for local businesses.

The RAAF Base at Amberley, with a $1.1 billion injection of funds—$600 million in this particular year as part of our stage 3—is building new infrastructure in the local area and local jobs are being created.

When you drive along the Ipswich Motorway—again, another great project funded by the Rudd Labor government—you cannot help but notice that thousands of jobs are being created and supported by an $884 million injection this year. Driving back from Brisbane to Ipswich you see so many people travelling to Ipswich to work these days from Brisbane. There are almost as many vehicles on the road coming back to Brisbane of an evening as there are returning to Ipswich from work in Brisbane. That is not what it was years ago. Business in Ipswich is booming. The unemployment rate actually went down 2.1 per cent in the last 12 months because of what is happening. So helping business in my local community is simply vital in all the circumstances.

I think that this is a great bill which helps my local businesses. It is having a practical impact. I know from personal experience that this sort of PAYG cash flow relief will help lots of businesses that I was involved in as a lawyer acting for them years ago. But it is important also that we give not just to businesses in Ipswich or Brisbane or Sydney or Melbourne, but also to businesses in rural areas.

So the 12-month extension of exceptional circumstances for farm dependent small businesses is warmly welcome. This will continue $20,000 non-business salary and wages exemption for exceptional circumstance relief payments, and $750,000 for non-business asset exemption for exceptional circumstances interest rate subsidies. That is really important because, as I have said on many occasions, Queensland is very different from other states. We are very regionally based. We have large rural communities and lots of small towns. Many people work on farms. They also work in these small communities in the towns. For example, we saw many types of businesses helped by the last stimulus package: 119 farming families received it. I want to thank the government for their commitment, thank the government for their help for small business and thank the government for the legislative changes in relation to tax which will help small business in my community.

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