Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

A 1½ per cent cut for small businesses might be enough to generate a headline but it is not enough to generate the long-term confidence and growth our economy needs. Tonight I say: let's go further—let's give small businesses the sustainable boost to confidence that they deserve, the confidence to create jobs. I invite you to work with me on a fair and fiscally responsible plan to reduce the tax rate for Australian small business from 30 to 25 per cent—not a 1½ per cent cut; a five per cent cut. That is the future. That is confidence.

I understand that this will not be easy, and it may take longer than the life of one parliament. That is why it must be bipartisan and it has to be fair. That is why it must be part of a more comprehensive approach to address the key pressures on our taxation system not only for small business but, as I mentioned before, for bracket creep and tax rates for ordinary working Australians. All of these things and more need to be addressed together in a fair and fiscally responsible way—this parliament, you and me, working together to create more jobs, working together to build a stronger economy and a better country.

And you are welcome to work with Labor on our clear and fair plans to improve the budget bottom line by more than $21 billion in the decade ahead. These include making foreign multinationals pay their fair share of tax—making them pay over $7 billion to help the budget bottom line—and improving the budget bottom line by an additional $14 billion by tightening unsustainably generous superannuation tax concessions subsidised by Australian taxpayers to those who already have millions of dollars in their accounts.

Labor created an improved superannuation for the same reason we champion a fair pension: we believe in dignity and security in retirement as the birthright of all Australians. We will take responsibility for making sure that superannuation is sustainable and fair—a national retirement savings system for the many, not just a tax haven for the few. Prime Minister, your stubborn defence of these unfair loopholes will only cause millions of other Australians to pay even more tax and our deficit to rise.

Labor will back small business to support jobs today, and we have a plan for jobs tomorrow. We have a plan to build a new engine for prosperity and to turbocharge our science, skills, infrastructure and education.

Like so many of my Labor team, I have spent my adult life standing up for fairness in the workplace, in the community and in this parliament. In 20 years of representing working people, I have been there in good times and hard times. When economic change starts to bite, Australians do not reach for a handout and they do not want charity, but they do expect hope and a sense of confidence. Above all, Australians want to know where the new jobs are coming from. What will their kids be doing for a living? What are the jobs of the next generation going to be? Nothing matters more to Labor than securing the jobs of the future, jobs that help Australians aim high, raise families and lift their standard of living.

The new jobs of the future require new skills—designing skills and coding skills—building, refining, adapting and servicing the machines in the supply chains of the new age. Three out of every four of the fastest-growing occupations in Australia will require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—not just researchers and programmers but technicians, electricians, plumbers and machine mechanics. Yet right now in our schools, TAFE and universities, there are not enough people acquiring these skills. Australia must get smarter or we will get poorer.

I believe Australia can be the science start-up and technology capital of our region, attracting the best minds, supporting great institutions and encouraging home our great expats. We should aspire together—universities and industry, the people and the parliament—to devote three per cent of our GDP to research and development by the end of the next decade.

I want more Australians making breakthroughs and adapting technology here in Australia and more Australian businesses sharing in the benefits of that technology in our warehouses, in our factories, in our farms and in our design firms.

Together let us harness the power of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to prepare for the future—a future of knowledge and service industries and advanced manufacturing, a nation of ideas and a country that makes things here.

Our future prosperity depends upon harnessing Australian ideas and defining a new global market for world-leading products. I want ideas born here to grow up here and create jobs here. Twenty-five years ago, if you were looking for work, you purchased a newspaper. Today, all around the world, millions of people search online. The world's largest online job ads company, SEEK.com, was created in Australia with the support of the Australian government. A $2½ million investment in 1998 helped grow what is now a $5 billion company employing over 500 Australians.

Labor will create a new $500 million smart investment fund to back great Australian ideas like this. Our smart investment fund will partner with venture capitalists and fund managers to invest in early-stage and high-potential companies. Our model has a definite, proven record of success both here and abroad. Every global company begins as a local one. Every big business starts out as small. And Labor will work with the banks and finance industry to establish a partial guarantees scheme, Startup, to help more Australians convert their great ideas into good businesses. We will enable entrepreneurs to access the capital they need to start and grow their enterprises.

So many of our competitors for the jobs of the future already have a scheme of this kind in place: the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany—and Hong Kong is a leader in our region. We understand and Labor understands in the new economy it is these businesses that will drive growth and create jobs. It is our responsibility to support our next generation of designers, refiners, manufacturers and creators.

And productivity is the most important catalyst for our economy, and the most important catalyst for productivity is education. Resource booms come and, as we discovered, they go, but our future depends on investing in our best natural resource: the creativity and skills of the Australian people. Digital technologies, computer science and coding, the language of computers and technology, should be taught in every primary and every secondary school in Australia, and a Shorten Labor government will make this a national priority. We will work with the states and territories and the national curriculum authority to make this happen. Coding is the literacy of the 21st century, and under Labor every young Australian will have a chance to read, write and work with the global language of the digital age.

All of us who have had our children teach us how to download an app know how quickly that children adapt to new technology. But I just do not want our Australian children playing with technology; I want them to have a chance to understand it, to create it and to work with it. We cannot do this without great teachers—not now and not in the future. We all remember our great teachers. I was raised by one of the best. My mother lived the value of education. As a young teacher, a mature-age student and as a university lecturer she showed me the doors that education can open for Australians from every walk of life, yet today two out of every five science and maths teachers for years 7 to 10 do not have a degree in these subjects. Twenty thousand teachers in our science, maths and IT classes did not study these subjects at university.

We are asking too much of these teachers and not doing enough to support them or pay them properly, so Labor will boost the skills of 10,000 current primary and secondary teachers, we will train 25,000 new teachers who are science and technology graduates and we will write off the HECS debt of 100,00 science, technology, engineering and maths students—and we will encourage more women to study, teach and work in these fields.

We need to offer the most powerful incentive to Australians thinking about studying science and technology: a good job. A career in science does not just mean a lifetime in a lab coat; it means opening doors in every facet and field of our national commercial life. Innovation offers opportunities everywhere: smarter farming and safer food; more liveable cities and better transport; new ways of learning from each other, working and communicating with each other and caring for each other. It is the key to the jobs of the future—the jobs that a Labor government will deliver.

It is reported that the government have nicknamed this the 'have a go' budget, but it does not have a go at returning to trend growth. It does not have a go at smoothing the transition in our economy from mining to services in our cities. It does not have a go at getting us back to surplus. It does not have a go at reform. It does not have a go at delivering skills required in the digital age. It did not even have a go at apologising for the last budget!

But, to be fair, it does have a go at some things. It does have a go at pensioners and the states. It does have a go at working women and working families. It does have a go at the students, the veterans, the carers, the job seekers. It does have a go at the sick and the vulnerable. But, if this is an election budget, so be it, but be under no illusions: the failure of last year's budget was not inevitable. If Labor had not stood strong, if the government had had its wilful way, if Tony Abbott had controlled the Senate, last year's malignant budget would have passed with all its social vandalism. And if by chance he gets another chance by having this one confirmed he will by ricochet inflict last year's unfairness this year—unfairness which remains at the core of this political document.

This budget is not an economic piece of paper; it is just a political piece of paper. Tony Abbott has only changed his tactics. He has not changed his mind. Whatever this budget brings, we are ready. We are ready to offer remedies rather than reactions. We are ready to fight for equity and for what is reasonable. We are ready to fight for what is good and for what is true.

We see the future. We see the future as one defined by science, technology, education and innovation. We see a future for Australia with good jobs and thriving businesses, productive infrastructure and liveable cities. We see an Australia writ large where opportunity is shared by all. This is the future that Labor believes in. This is our vision for what we can achieve together as a people and as a nation: a smart, modern and fair Australia.

House adjourned at 20:01

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