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

The instant asset write-off is a major boost to cash flow to millions of Australian small businesses. I am not surprised that those opposite would not acknowledge what an important boost it is to the cash flow of small businesses, because they want to get rid of it. They are not going to tell people about it and be honest about it. Loss carry back is also very important to many small businesses. This is opposed by those opposite as well.

I have been asked about the carbon price. The carbon price is working and it is having a dramatic impact on emissions. That is a good thing for our country. We on this side of the House understand the importance of dealing with dangerous climate change, unlike those opposite. The Leader of the Opposition has called it absolute crap. He said he has been a weathervane when it comes to climate change. On this side of the House we have conviction. We have conviction about jobs and growth. We have conviction about doing something about dangerous climate change. We have conviction about doing something to increase the resources available for the education of our children. There is a very clear contrast.

So when it comes to small business and the rest of the business community there is nothing more fundamental that we can do for business than to support jobs and growth. Growth in our economy is solid: 0.6 and 2.5 through the year. Where else do you see those sorts of growth levels in developed economies around the world? Indeed, many of the developed economies are going further backwards. Where else do you see an economy which is 14 per cent larger than it was at the end of 2007? The Canadians are only up to about six per cent.

The fact is that the most fundamental thing we can do for business is to make sure we are supporting jobs and growth so we have consumers who can spend a dollar and keep the doors of those businesses open. That is what drove us when responding to the global financial crisis and the global recession—to keep the doors of small business open when global demand fell off a cliff. And guess what? We were pretty successful at that. We are successful at it now because we understand the importance of jobs and growth. You do not. The people who will suffer, if you ever get the chance to take the axe to public expenditure, will be the small businesses of our country.

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