Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The AFP successfully intervened, Customs successfully intervened and those opposite were suddenly concerned about it. The press gallery was wondering where this all came from. The greatest smuggling act yesterday was these guys smuggling their embarrassment through distraction. What they tried to do yesterday was confect concern about something that we had been worried about for ages. The New South Wales government never did anything. The New South Wales government need to have something that can distract them from their problems with casinos in New South Wales. And you needed a distraction from the fact that you were not there to support business in this country because you announced you were putting your own interests above business interests. At least we stand up for the people that you always point out we represent: the union movement. You do not. The guys opposite fail to stand up for their own, the ones they claim they represent.

Look at the suite of policies that we have put in since 2007, all the things we have been doing. I have mentioned the asset tax write-off. I have mentioned the corporate tax cuts we are trying to make. We are providing a head start for small companies on the company tax rate, which you will deny through your actions in parliament. Businesses that operate as sole traders, partnerships and trusts will benefit from the next round of personal income tax cuts, which start in July this year. We have reduced quarterly pay-as-you-go income tax instalments for the 2011-12 income year for taxpayers using the GDP adjustment method, providing $700 million as a cash flow benefit to small business. Huge. Those are the types of things that we are doing. The New Enterprise Incentives Scheme is a program that helps eligible social security recipients to get into self-employment, to get into small business, giving them a start.

Look at the types of things that we on this side of the fence are doing to help small business but that are opposed by those opposite every single step of the way. They are not interested in jobs. Today demonstrated it. They were more interested in providing a job for someone they did not want to give a job to themselves. They were concerned that the former Treasurer and member for Higgins was not going to get the plum job at the Future Fund. Yet they would not even put him in as leader of their own party. That is what they are concerned about in this place. They are not concerned about the jobs created by small businesses. They are not concerned about the policies that we are putting forward that support small business. It was remarkable, I have to say, to hear the Leader of the Opposition talk about Peter Costello, the former member for Higgins. He has now been lionised by those opposite after he was demonised when he was in the parliament.

We had the situation where the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Warringah, was saying that the member for Higgins as Treasurer alone was responsible for two million jobs being created. Those opposite were in power for 11 years and they created two million jobs, but we have nearly cracked one million in one parliamentary term. What was the former member for Higgins doing in what we are told were great times for the economy? Those opposite were not interested in creating jobs. They were not responsible for creating jobs. They made life hard for working people trying to draw a wage through what they did with Work Choices. On top of that they put huge burdens on small business.

Where were they when small businesses were asking for help on trade practices reform? Missing in action. When small businesses were concerned about predatory pricing that was squeezing them out of business or when small businesses were concerned about creeping acquisitions, I remember the member for Higgins resisting the calls for trade practices reform, sitting on reports that had been done, reports that called for that reform to occur to help small business, which did not want to be muscled out by big business. I congratulate those opposite. They have got form. They are always helping out those big interests in the economy: Clive Palmer, our national treasure, Gina Rinehart—

Opposition members interjecting—

I know you love Gina. I am waiting for the T-shirts to sprout on the other side of the chamber. Back then, they were going slow on competition reform, slowing things down so that small businesses could not get ahead. I never heard you, Member for Dunkley, ever raise that. The other thing is that I have never seen the member for Dunkley be so concerned about the fact that those opposite, your side of politics, would deny those people a tax cut. You are an absolute disgrace to small business. (Time expired)

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