Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition understands small business as the heart and soul of the Australian economy. It is definitely the heart and soul of local communities like the south-west in my electorate. Of the over two million actively trading businesses in Australia, almost 96 per cent are small businesses. Small businesses are those with fewer than 20 employees. They account for 46 per cent of all Australian workers in the private sector, a number that fell significantly under the Labor government. This means that small business employs perhaps 40 per cent of all Australian workers, and in so many small regional and rural communities as well.

The small businesses are, as I said, the heart and soul of the community itself. They are the ones who choose to invest in areas where often there is great need but frequently less profit. They also support local service clubs, community service organisations and sporting clubs. If they are farming businesses, it is often their tractors and machinery that are used for community projects as well as the expertise of the local farmer in actually operating the gear to get the job done. And that is why this small business is so important to the coalition government and why we have demonstrated this so clearly in the budget, our clear and strong focus on small business.

Even in the lead up to the budget we delivered a new way for small business to interact with the Commonwealth, and real powers through the transition of the Small Business Commissioner into the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. It can be often really frustrating if you are a small business making sense of the complex information and range of services the government offers. The government is helping businesses to help themselves. The ombudsman will provide straightforward and honest advice that will help businesses understand disputes and how they can be avoided in the future. We have set up a new unit to provide specialist advice on contracts, and to ensure that small businesses are not disadvantaged, as part of the Commonwealth departments' tendering and procurement processes. The Abbott government has allocated $2.8 million over four years to deliver on this important commitment, which will help small businesses access Commonwealth contracts.

The government has also reduced the compliance burden employers face, when making superannuation contributions, by having the Australian Taxation Office take over the running of the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House—something really practical when your business is working in your business and you are limited for time. It is an online service that helps small businesses meet their superannuation guarantee obligations by allowing employers to pay super contributions in one transaction, to a single location, to reduce red tape and compliance costs—just practical. Another step has been to ensure that small-business people who call the Fair Work Ombudsman now receive priority service with reduced waiting times. If you are in small business every minute counts, and every minute away from your customers counts. This will help them to efficiently improve their understanding of workplace laws so that they are more confident in growing, investing and creating jobs. This is another important plank in our small-business policy.

This government is doing the first comprehensive review of competition laws and policy in more than 20 years, delivering on a key election commitment, and we are doing what we said we would do. The budget in 2015 delivers $3.25 billion in tax cuts for small businesses, and $1.75 billion in accelerated depreciation measures—again, practical outcomes. From 1 July the government will cut the company tax rate for up to 780,000 incorporated businesses with an annual turnover of up to $2 million by 1.5 per cent, down to 28.5 per cent. From 1 July the government will also provide a five per cent tax discount for over 1½ million sole traders, trusts and partnership structures that are unincorporated businesses with an annual turnover of up to $2 million—capped at $1,000—through their end-of-year tax return. As well, until June 2017, small businesses with a turnover of below $2 million will be able to fully and immediately deduct every asset they acquire that is valued up to $20,000 for tax purposes—a substantial increase from the previous $1,000 threshold. Australian small businesses will have the lowest company tax rate for public and private companies since 1967.

The growing jobs and small-business package also includes measures to further reduce the red tape and regulatory impediments that hinder small-business growth, including changes to the fringe-benefits tax system that will expand the FBT exemption for work related portable electronic devices. Reforms to capital gains tax rollover will enable small businesses to change the legal structure of their business without incurring CGT liability, and the government will consult on potential changes to the Corporations Act to reduce compliance costs and make it easier for small proprietary companies to raise new capital. These are really simple, sometimes small and incremental changes but, if you are in small business, each one makes a difference.

The growing jobs and small-business package encourages business start-ups and entrepreneurships as well. Start-ups will be able to immediately deduct professional expenses incurred when they begin a business, such as legal expenses upon establishing a company, a trust, or a partnership, rather than writing them off over five years. This provides immediate cash-flow benefits for small business. If you are starting up, your cash flow is king. We will also provide a streamlined business-registration process to make it quicker and simpler to set up a new business, and a single online registration site will be developed for business registration, including company registration, simplifying it and making it easier to get involved in small business.

The government will remove obstacles to crowd sourced equity funding to help promote small businesses' access to finance by increasing the availability of innovative sources of funding. And, from 1 July, expanded tax concessions for employee share schemes will make it easier for small start-up companies to attract and retain the skills and talent they need to grow—the skills and talent in my part of the world. These measures will help encourage investment—those thousands of small businesses in my part of the world. It will encourage investment, innovation and the start-up of new businesses, which will help Australia's economic future.

The growing jobs and small business package also helps employers to take on inexperienced and mature workers—both ends. No wonder small business is energised and rubbing its hands. For the first time in many years, small business is actually getting the respect it deserves, not what we saw with those five or six small business ministers and basically a throwaway, disposable approach that the previous government had to small business.

Since the government was elected, around a quarter of a million new jobs have been created, but there is much more to be done. New measures will focus on making job seekers more employable, reducing the costs of taking on new staff and bringing job seekers and job providers together. The government is investing $6.8 billion to establish Job Active to improve the quality of services delivered to job seekers and employers. The new Job Active system will be focused on results and reward performance, not the process—something we understand particularly well.

There will be a $1.2 billion pool for wage subsidies to support employers to provide job opportunities and assist job seekers into work—the first step. The government will also deliver a $331 million Youth Employment Strategy, an $18 million national work experience program and changes to Restart to make it easier for small businesses to receive government support when they employ older workers.

Small business has been tasked by the coalition government to transform our economy as the proceeds and benefits of the mining boom taper as that investment phase turns into production. Small businesses are absolutely essential to the growth in our economy and the maintenance of our living standard. We started the job of helping small businesses by previously focusing on the reduction of red tape and other impediments, and we have continued by restoring incentives. In fact, this year's budget was the largest small business package we have seen in this nation's history.

Unincorporated businesses have not been forgotten. Two-thirds of Australian small businesses are not structured as companies. That includes independent contractors, self-employed people and those working in partnerships or through trusts. Under the Howard government, this group provided 52 per cent of the private sector workforce opportunities, but under the Labor years the number had fallen to 43 per cent.

Under those Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, 519,000 jobs were lost in small business. Nothing could be clearer than why we need the measures that we have taken. There were actually fewer small businesses employing people by the end of the Labor government in 2013 than was the case when the Howard government was in office. Small business needs a government in Canberra that is a partner, that understands them, that is an ally and that is an advocate for their interests, and that is what we are. Many of us are small business people ourselves.

Implementing our election commitments has seen changes to the competitive landscape. We have seen unfair-contract-terms protections developed, reforms to franchising, the right to repair in the car industry and the idea that suppliers to our major supermarkets should be able to have a fair go and can be respected for their entrepreneurship as well. Recently, the World Economic Forum had us at 128th in the world in terms of overreaching and excessive regulation following those Labor years. This means that 127 other economies were less constrained, more nimble, more agile and better placed to adapt and embrace the economic opportunities within their reach. For the sake of the Australian small businesses, we have to do better.

The government is committed to working with the tax office to make it more digitally engaged. We also want to streamline the business formation process. This government will allow your professional advice to be deducted as an expense rather than depreciated over five years, encouraging people to think about new avenues to finance. We have also addressed new opportunities in crowd sourced equity funding and delivered again for workers and businesses by rejuvenating those employee share schemes.

There is a lot more to be done for small business, especially regional small business. But there is one thing about small business: they generally have a go and do their best to help themselves. Helping those who help themselves is a great outcome for all involved and for Australia. In the package that we have delivered as part of this budget, that is really important.

One of those areas is in the delivery of broadband, which I have been working to help. Australia and my part of the world need better broadband sooner. We need to catch up to the major metropolitan centres and have access that has long been denied to us. We saw six years of nothing happening in my electorate under the previous government. We need to have businesses that can grow and compete, and for individuals, to allow an equivalent level of support. Labor in government failed to prioritise regional communities in the original NBN plan. Many regional areas with no broadband service were absolutely left behind, like mine, and had to watch as metro areas were upgraded and often over-built.

Labor underestimated by a factor of 2 to 3 the number of Australians in remote and regional who wanted the NBN. That is easily demonstrated by the bungling of the NBN interim satellite service, which provides temporary internet access for premises in the metro fringe, regional and remote areas with no other way of getting broadband. In December 2013 the ISS reached its capacity of 48,000 customers, and registrations were closed. In 2014 Labor told 250,000 households and businesses, many with other broadband options, that they were eligible for the ISS. Tens of thousands were left demanding service but were unable to get it. Labor spent $355 million on the ISS—$7,300 per user—yet it delivers dial-up services to many. By comparison we have made unserviced and underserviced regions a priority. This coalition government is committed to rolling out the National Broadband Network as quickly as possible, at less cost to taxpayers, and more affordably to consumers. In nine months, for a start, the number of premises covered increased 65 per cent, and the rollout is proceeding using a multi-technology mix that matches the right technology to the right location and leverages the existing infrastructure.

There are many reasons small businesses in my electorate and in others around Australia are very pleased with this particular budget. But, more importantly, they are pleased that what they do is actually valued and respected by this government. If you are in small business, with your head down and tail up, that is exactly what you want from your government.

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