Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

She knows, as all members of the coalition know, that small business is the engine room of the Australian economy. Many of us have actually worked in small businesses. We know how hard they work.

They get up early in the morning, small business people—like others. They get up early in the morning and they go into work and have a go. They try to build better businesses. They invest and they take risks. And those businesses are often family businesses; they have cousins, they have aunts and they have uncles. They have parents and children, and they all work damn hard to try to eke out a living to give themselves and their children a better life. We want to back those people. We want to back those Australians who are putting all that effort in. They are innovative, they are employing and increasingly they are exporting as a result of the good work of the Minister for Trade and Investment. And they are going to have huge opportunities as we go forward.

I say to the member for Corangamite: there are 11,300 small businesses in her electorate that now qualify for a 1½ per cent tax cut or a significant reduction in their tax if they are not incorporated, and in particular they will have the opportunity to deduct immediately up to 100 per cent of anything they buy for under $20,000 that is going to help to grow their businesses. This is a terrific initiative and it is fully funded in the budget. It is fully funded in the budget, because we want small business to go out there to invest and grow.

For example, for a coffee shop: if you want to buy heaters, or if you want to buy some new ovens or if you want to buy new refrigeration you can go out now and buy that item and write it off against your tax liability on 1 July. I say to tradies—of which there are quite a few in the member for Corangamite's electorate: go out and buy a car if that suit your needs—a second-hand car, even—because you can have accelerated depreciation applied to that. Buy new tools; upgrade your equipment that helps you to be more productive—it might be a home computer that is able to be used to help to do the paperwork associated with your business. Go out and have a go; improve your productivity.

If you invest and if you make more money, that is good for all Australians. If you are successful you can employ more Australians. We see that as a very, very good start. And I welcome the fact that the opposition has now given support to the proposal, as did the shadow Treasurer earlier today on the Jon Faine program. That means Australians can go out now and invest to grow their businesses.

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