Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Schedule 2 of the bill expands the scope of the concessions for those assets which are used under a passive assets structure. The amendments allow a small business only a capital gains tax asset that is used in a business by an affiliate, or an entity associated with the small business, to access the small business capital gains tax concessions. The amendments also allow partners who own a capital gains tax asset that is used in a partnership business to access the small business capital gains tax concessions through the $2 million aggregated turnover test where the capital gains tax asset is not an asset of the partnership. The coalition welcomes these amendments. Indeed, we have advocated for the small business capital gains tax concessions to be expanded further, and that of course was first outlined by the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Nelson, in his budget-in-reply a little over a year ago, and this would occur of course under an elected Turnbull government. It will further expand the small business capital gains tax concessions by reducing the active asset test from 15 years down to five years, giving small businesses access to the concessions.

So I put that on the table as something else that the government should copy from the coalition. If you copy it from the coalition you will receive praise from the small business sector because it is something that the small business sector would like to see instituted. The commitment was made by the Leader of the Opposition in the 2008 budget-in-reply and the government is still to respond to our proposal. Only a Turnbull coalition government would provide further relief for retiring small business owners through the small business capital gains tax concessions.

Finally, I have heard the interjections from the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, who is sitting opposite, that I go on longer. I will just indulge the House and myself for one brief moment to reflect on the comments made by the member for Oxley when he spoke about having spent 10 years in opposition focusing on the things that he was lamenting, the things that cannot be undone, and saying that they were his inspiration for policy.

If there is one issue that the member for Oxley should be lamenting, if there is one example of a thing that cannot be undone, I would say to the government that it is their $300 billion of debt. That is something that you should lament—$300 billion of debt that the small business men and women of Australia will have to pay for through higher interest rates and higher taxes. That is what cannot be undone. That is what the government should be lamenting, because of their $124 billion splurge of new spending. Ten million dollars an hour since the Rudd Labor government were elected is what the government should be lamenting. It will be, unfortunately, on the shoulders of Australia’s 2.4 million small business men and women to be paid off. The Rudd Labor government have accrued $9,000 of debt for every single man, woman and child in the 18 months since they were elected. That is the great travesty of this reckless government, who have lost control of the public finances and are crippling confidence in Australia’s small business sector.

Small business men and women say to me that the best thing that this country could ever see would be for this reckless-spending government to be voted out of office and for the coalition to be re-elected. It took us nearly 12 years to repay Labor’s $96 billion worth of debt. It is going to take us who knows how many decades to repay Labor’s $300 billion worth of debt, which they have managed to rack up in a relatively short 18 months. Having said all of that, I will honour my commitment to the parliamentary secretary at the table and confine my remarks to that.

See this speech in context