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

I thank the member for Brisbane for his question and for his ongoing support for all those small businesses in and around the central area of Brisbane. He has been a long and trusted supporter of the small business community there. The national accounts released last week confirm that our fiscal stimulus strategy is working and that Australia is one of the very few developed countries that is not in recession. In fact, it is the only major developed country not in recession. We have now recorded two successive quarters of positive economic growth at a time when, overall, the rest of the developed world is in the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

It was interesting to go through a bit of a breakdown of the national accounts figures because they reveal that private investment in plant and equipment was much stronger than the market had expected. Gross domestic product in the June quarter grew by 0.6 per cent but business expenditure on equipment, plant and machinery increased by 5.6 per cent. Compare that with the overall GDP growth of 0.6 per cent—a very strong result. There was a 5.6 per cent increase in investment in equipment, plant and machinery. It is fascinating because Treasury estimates suggest that that investment in equipment, plant and machinery would have contracted by around three per cent without the small business and general business tax break. That shows how important the stimulus has been and continues to be in supporting small business through these challenging economic times.

It is clear that this strong result is testimony to the small business and general business tax break that was introduced by the Rudd government on 13 December last year, but yet again the opposition leader has shown poor judgment by claiming that small businesses would not take advantage of that tax break. That is what he said: that small business would not take advantage of the tax break. In fact, they have done so. Indeed, the Prime Minister—

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