Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. The question from the honourable member for Paterson was about the impact of the government’s tax reform proposal on the economy of his region. That is what I am responding to. The purpose of the government’s tax reform is to make it possible to bring down the company tax rate right across the country to increase our global competitiveness—as opposed to those opposite, who would increase the company tax rate, thereby impeding the profitability of firms across the economy and doing the same to small business. I am advised reliably by the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy that there are 4,194 small businesses in his electorate that stand to benefit from this government’s special tax break on $5,000 of assets in a given year in order to take the burden of tax from small business, so much the engine room of our economy.

Another reason that we are investing in tax reform is to make sure that we can fund the country’s future infrastructure needs. The member for Sturt took a point of order in terms of the relevance of this matter. The funding of infrastructure is one of the core cornerstones of the reason we are constructing this tax reform. We are doing it so that we can fund the nation’s future infrastructure; fund what is necessary for the construction of the Hunter Expressway, a very large project—$1.4 billion. Does he assume that this money grows on trees? It does not. We need to derive this money from the tax base of the Commonwealth in order to make sure that infrastructure is built.

The member for Paterson spoke specifically about the industries within his region: the port and the associated resource industries around coal. We are investing something in the vicinity of half-a-billion dollars through the ARTC to increase the overall efficiency of the rail infrastructure to make that port, the port of Newcastle, as efficient as possible. He asks, therefore, what we are doing for the businesses and economies of his region. I welcome that sort of question from any member opposite, because we are bringing down the company rate, bringing down the tax burden on small business, boosting the super payments for all the workers in your electorate, increasing our ability to invest in projects like the Hunter Expressway and investing in projects like the ones that the ARTC is investing in in terms of the rail efficiency of the port of Newcastle. These are the practical things which make a difference. We believe that this is an absolutely essential reform for the nation’s future.

I say therefore to the member for Paterson that the important thing is to be actually fair dinkum about tax reform. We saw what happened in terms of fair dinkum tax policy from those opposite during the course of last week. They could not render the full gospel truth of whether they thought that there was enough tax, too much tax, just enough tax, or whether anyone should have a tax policy on the benches of those opposite. We have had this change time and time again. But there is more. I have just been alerted to the fact that, on the question of the full gospel truth, we have had another major backflip by the Leader of the Opposition on policy. We have seen it on tax; we have seen it on the party room. We have seen it also in the party room’s deliberations on border protection and the assurances that he gave about shutting the border. This one goes to climate change.

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