Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, what a gob-smacking performance from the member for McMahon! This topic was supposed to be about a fair and sustainable plan for Australia's future, but all we heard about was Labor's plan for a new tax. That is all we get from Labor. What are they doing in opposition? Are they congratulating each other that they are the shadow ministers for something or other? They are not coming up with any ideas in this year of the big ideas. We just heard the shadow Treasurer—the person who aspires to be managing the levers of our economy and our capacity to fund essential works and services for our nation—tease us that he may have come up with something that looked like a fair and sustainable plan for Australia's future. Yet all we heard was Labor's big idea—a new tax. They want to reach into the superannuation savings—if in case of fiscal danger, break glass and pinch people's superannuation retirement funds to prop up their inability to manage the budget and articulate any kind of plan for the future of our country.

What a vivid contrast! There is no preparedness whatsoever from Labor to recognise the debt and deficit trajectory they had hard-wired our nation into. They have no shame in ignoring the circumstances they have left this government to repair and renew opportunity and hope for the future. There is no acknowledgement whatsoever that it is this government that has a plan. It has a plan for economic recovery—to boost jobs and participation and to energise enterprise in small business. Did you hear one positive or constructive idea? No, all you got was the member for McMahon—who is now known as 'Bowen of Blah Blah'—go on with this torrent of words to torment the ears of everybody in the chamber. Could you get one single, coherent idea or even something that masqueraded as a plan? No, it was just a 'cunning plan', to use Baldrick's term, to reach into the pockets of superannuants to prop up Labor's inability to manage the budget.

So what have we been doing? Well, our plan is about repairing our economic circumstances. It is about, as a nation, fronting up to our responsibility to those in the future. We should pay our way; there is nothing fair about gifting debt, deficit and the burden to fund today's works and services to future generations. That is not fair; that is intergenerational theft. Labor cannot even confront the idea that it has caused this financial challenge, which it has now left to the Abbott coalition government to deal with. It is left to us to get the economy and the budget of the nation back on track. That is at the heart of our plan: paying our way, providing scope for improved opportunities for the future, and promising that we will do what is needed to deliver the great promise of our country that the next generation will have it better than we had it. If we left things on Labor's setting, we would be the first generation to deny the next generation that great promise. What is fair about that?

You see these Labor people opposite; where are their ideas, other than one plan? It is a plan that they have to rollout and bump the numbers up over a decade just so it gets the 'whoa' reaction from the journalists. They cannot even manage to work within the financial estimates. They need the whistle factor, and the only way that they can do that is roll it out 10 years ahead. What is it? It is a plan that Labor talked about when they were in government, but they did not have the wit to actually implement it, because the consequences go well beyond what they are saying would be the impact on those self-funded retirees in our economy.

Let us think about those self-funded retirees. We saw from the Intergenerational report that right now only one in six retirees are fully self-funded—that is, are genuinely independent. Labor thought 'Well, that's okay'. On the policy settings that they left behind, by 2050, after three generations of compulsory superannuation, do you know what the numbers look like? One in six; it does not change at all. The policy settings, which Labor have put in place to relieve some of the financial burden on future generations, were making no contribution whatsoever. What we have said is that, if people put aside and provide for their own retirement, put their own resources into their retirement nest egg, and take responsibility for their own retirement, it is a bit rich to see those resources as a raid opportunity to pickpocket to prop up the budget. That is what Labor want to do.

Our view, in order to ensure sustainability, is to make sure that income support is targeted to people who genuinely need their income supported. That is a difficult decision. That is being responsible. That is recognising the role of the taxpayer in funding income support, by making sure that income support goes to people who genuinely need it. We have a range of other measures in the budget—not to see expenditures drop like a lead balloon—but to tackle the fact that, under Labor, expenditures were taking off like a jet fighter and the revenue could not keep up. We are saying 'dial that back'. We see growth in key areas of our role and responsibilities of government: more funding for health, more funding for education, an adequate and responsive safety net for those who need our help, and a reprioritisation of scarce taxpayer resources to where they are needed so that we can actually get the economy going and create the jobs and opportunities for the future. That is a sustainable plan. This is that plan.

This is a plan that does not have as its ambition handcuffing people to welfare. That is not the ambition that Australians have. They want the dignity of work—the opportunity to improve their circumstances, to provide for their own needs and, through that, build the momentum for a good, dignified quality of life in this great country that we are blessed to the citizens in. This is a plan that says fix the budget; $58.6 billion is where Labor are currently behind the budget task. They cannot fix it; they are adding to the problem. In those thought bubbles masquerading as the Leader of the Opposition's budget reply speech, he added another $6.6 billion to the already $52 billion of budget black hole that Labor have created by denying savings that they even campaigned on in government, yet now will not support. Where we are making adjustments to live affordably within our means, Labor are saying 'No, no, we can't do that; that's not right' in order to play to their various interest groups and to not really tackle the challenges that we face. Labor are $58.6 billion behind and they have the hide to come in here and talk about budget repair.

The member for McMahon was shadow Treasurer for about five minutes and he did not manage to mention that in his bio, but he has fixed that now. The member for McMahon failed to talk about getting the right environment in place to support enterprise job creation, to energise enterprise in small business and to put in place the right incentives so that those looking for work have that opportunity to work. You know where work is most likely to be found for those looking to get their first job or those who have been out of work for some time and are looking to return to the economy? It is not in the big corporates—the big Labor, big union, big government, big business chat fest that they love. No, it is not in that space. It is in the small businesses. It is small businesses, it is family or farming enterprises, and it is those entrepreneurial people right across our continent that are creating economic life and vitality in their community. That is where the opportunities come from. That is why that is our plan: target, support, encourage and incentivise enterprising men and women to do what they do best, and that is have a go and turn an idea and ambition into economic opportunity and action. Our plan, through our incentives, is to reward entrepreneurship with a company tax cut for small businesses, taking it to where it has not been for half a century. The tax rate has not been lower for 49 years. That is a good measure.

Labor forgets that two-thirds of small businesses are not incorporated. Labor had a thought bubble on budget night. Do you know why it is a thought bubble? Labor briefed the Leader of the Opposition's speech around. By early afternoon there was no mention of small business in his speech—none. Then somebody thought: 'Gee, you can't do that; you've already got a reputation when it comes to pies and small business, and the only small business you've ever got up close to is the one that you've picketed.' So there was a little add in. The little add in was: 'Let's try and trump what the government's doing. Not one 1½ per cent, let's go five!' It had a familiar ring to it because that is what they promised in 2010. What happened? Absolutely nothing—that is probably not true: they printed a whole lot of newsletters praising themselves for what they had done and then did not do it. They stooged small business again; they came up with an idea that ignored two-thirds of them.

What they needed to do was simply turn their mind to the government's jobs and small business package: a $5.5 billion investment in a fair, sustainable, robust economy that delivers the chance for people to secure work and for enterprising people to get ahead. It is a package to support and energise a thriving economy that can make the best of the opportunities which are in abundance for our country and our people. That is a plan. This is the plan. The best thing that Labor can do is stop kidding themselves and the Australian public that they care about jobs other their own. They should stop kidding the Australian public that there is some other interest group—other than the unions—that they come in here and spruik for. This is about the future. This is a plan. Labor did not have a plan other than a 'cunning plan' for a new tax, and that is their idea of the future.

See this speech in context