Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is part of it right there. There is a plan. The issue we have is that the only plan over there is to just say no. Those in the opposition will just say no. If they continue to get in the way it will be very difficult I am sure.

As has been said before by a number of speakers on this side, the powerhouse of the Australian economy is small business and this budget has a whole heap of things in it that are very positive for small business. As someone who was in small business for 15 years I can tell you that there are real opportunities here. These opportunities can be brought forward before the end of this current financial year. There will be an opportunity for people to replace small infrastructure and get a direct write-down. I can tell you that every small business in this country right now is making decisions about what they will do before the end of the financial year. They have done their planning. They have looked at what is coming through the door and they will make decisions about what they can spend between now and 30 June. They have an opportunity to write off 100 per cent of small infrastructure, small items of plant and equipment, up to $20,000. I think it is fantastic.

The member for Gorton talked about there being no investment in skills. I am not sure where he has been because I am positive that there is the Industry Skills Fund. There is $476 million for skills advice and tailored staff training to help businesses expand and compete. Once again, as someone who has come out of the training sector, I can tell you that the days of training churn, the days of putting numbers through training under the JSA system, are finished. We need to provide people with skills with which they can become employed. That is what is important, not just churning through different training organisations on a subsidised basis and coming out the other side. We have 4,000 baristas and in my electorate we do not need that many. We quite simply need people who have the skills to drive forklifts and operate a vehicle. They are very, very simple things.

We have a very difficult economic situation in my electorate. I have some 4000-odd people who are multigenerational welfare dependants. The biggest restriction to them getting a job is having a drivers licence. To get one they need over 100 hours of monitored training, they need a logbook and they need a vehicle. It is very, very difficult when you are in such a situation.

This is supposed to be the year of ideas from those opposite. If that is the best salvo they have to fire in the year of ideas, if this were a game of battleship nothing would be hitting the board. They are scrabbling around in the tin, looking for things to throw, but it is all falling on the floor. There are definitely no hits—none. There is nothing in the jar. It is empty. They have no ideas. It is an empty landscape as far as you can see. In fact, I am sure tonight's speech will be, 'There is nothing to see here.' There is absolutely nothing to see.

We have opportunities right now. The member for Cunningham talked about Tony's tradies. I am very interested in tradespeople because I actually am one. I am one of the few people left in the House who is. Those opposite, many years ago, used to represent working people. They now represent unions. The number of people with trades on that side of the House has deteriorated incredibly. I would like to see more working people on that side of the House, not just people who represent unions. Not everyone is in a union. There is an awful lot of people out there who are not.

The member for Chifley was talking about start-ups. Start-ups are, once again, something I know something about given I have started quite a number. I can tell you that the first three months of trading are incredibly difficult. There are opportunities in this year's budget for start-ups to get 100 per cent write-down on the cost of setting up. It is good value. He talked about LNG facilities and how, amazingly, there were thousands and thousands of people employed in the construction of these facilities. That is not really a surprise. Last time I checked, when you build things, it does take an enormous number of people. It takes labour, equipment and money.

When things go from construction to operation, there are fewer people involved. I cannot think of too many operations where you construct things that end up with as many workers in them as there were to build the thing. That is just the nature of the issue and the nature of the operation. Those facilities are operational. In Gladstone there is in LNG plant which is providing gas from Australia to the world. It is providing returns to the people of Australia and the people of Queensland. It is a very important part of our economy, and we should continue to get on with it. Those opposite needs to wake up to themselves and get out of the way.

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