Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What has occurred—the member for Dickson probably agrees with this because I know his electorate well—is we have negotiated with the biggest miners in the country. They have agreed on what the figure should be. They have agreed that they need to make a greater contribution to this country. We are talking about companies that make an after-tax profit of $75 million. We are not talking about someone who has the backside falling out of their pants, struggling to get down their shovel blade down a hole to dig a little deeper. We are talking to people who are making a $75 million after-tax profit. They are the ones who are going to be required to pay. That money will give us the ability to make adjustments to help small business.

I said that 95 per cent of businesses in my electorate are small businesses. Those people can buy a vehicle, whether it is a Commodore or Ford or some other type of vehicle, and apply to have the instant asset write-off of $6,000. We have to contrast that with what the opposition did in government. They had 12 years to look at this.

I was in small business when John Howard promised to cut small business red tape by 50 per cent in the first term of his government. Instead, what did the coalition do? They saddled businesses—

Ms Brodtmann interjecting—

particularly small businesses—you are right, the member for Canberra—with GST. They certainly saddled it with a greater amount of red tape. I know the amount of work I had to do to find my way through a complex BAS. That is what they delivered to small business. They made it infinitely more difficult for small business to operate in that environment. It took Labor to make and deliver on commitments to small business. As I said at the outset, we know that the fastest growing area in our economy is small business and much of that is independent contractors. They are electricians, plumbers and bricklayers who now require an ABN to get onto various job sites—particularly in Sydney. They had to have an ABN, they had to become a small business, and that is how they got treated. Anyway, these businesses got on and I know many of them have employed apprentices locally. These businesses now have the opportunity to go out there and get that ute. They now have the opportunity to start to expand their business.

The mining tax is going to help facilitate the rise of superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent. That is a great dream for anybody in the workforce. I know that not many of those opposite necessarily reflect people in the workforce but we here do. We understand what it is for working people to have a sound retirement income at the end of their working lives. Moving superannuation to 12 per cent is a true Labor objective, one that we should be proud of delivering. But it does not just come, we have to make things work.

I understand it is difficult for those opposite. I understand that even as late as yesterday they were conflicted on this as part of their party room was going to support the superannuation rise. All except Andrew Robb, at least, were going to support this. They said they were going to support superannuation but they were going to oppose the mining tax. But when the legislation came here last night, I thought at best they would abstain from voting. They could not work it out. We had the Leader of the Opposition sleeping in the front row, being nudged in the ribs. We had the shadow Treasurer sitting at the table, not sure what call make. Then we had the member for Mackellar call for a division and they all voted no to superannuation. I do not know how they are going to explain that in their next round of newsletters. They opposed working Australians getting a genuine Labor objective of an adjustment to 12 per cent superannuation. (Time expired)

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