Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to voice my disappointment and concern at the way this government has trivialised the importance of successful businesspeople in this country, particularly Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer and Twiggy Forrest. It is as if being successful in this country is open to being scorned, that success in this country will only invite the pettiness of Labor governments to trivialise these achievements. Well, to you I say: shame! It is as if being successful in this country means that this Labor government automatically has the right to attack what is beyond its capacity. It is easy to attack and ridicule what can never be yours—a profitable, sizable business. You detest it because you detest success. The ALP scorns success because you have never tasted it yourself. You have always relied on the sector to provide employment, from which Labor prospers. Australia needs modern-day business pioneers, just as we needed Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson. We need modern-day pioneers to invest in this nation and we need to recognise them. If you take anything from my statements today, take this: Labor's crippling taxes and cost-of-living pressures are hurting families and businesses in my electorate of Wright. You scorn what you do not understand, and you do not understand this economy and the pressures that exists for businesses out there at the moment. When will you learn that you cannot tax and legislate a nation into prosperity?

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