Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We want to see all businesses in the country benefit from the mining boom. We want to see the opportunities that are created spread right around our country. In the electorate of La Trobe the instant asset write-off will benefit 17,600 small businesses. But, of course, there will be a very significant boost to the superannuation savings of workers right around Australia and in La Trobe that will benefit 53,000 workers, because it is important to boost our national savings at a time of such large investment in our economy. It is also prudent to lift our national investment and at the same time lift the quality of life of people who are saving for their retirement. The other thing that we want to do is invest in critical infrastructure particularly in the mining region. So that is why we are backing the instant asset write-off, which will be particularly good for those that are wanting to buy a car: they can write off the first $5,000 of that. That will be very good for all those people that are driving utes. But also what we need to do is boost the superannuation savings of workers. If we are to successfully do all this we must bring our budget back to surplus because growth is coming back to trend. But we know why those opposite are opposing these cuts, because they have got a $70 billion hole in their budget bottom line. That is why they are saying, 'No, no, no.'

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