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

Firstly, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to this debate—in particular, the member for Hughes. I am grateful for his kind words. The small business community runs through his veins and he has deep convictions about what this nation should be doing to support enterprise. I will briefly touch on the surprising and rather curious amendments from the opposition that do not actually seek to do anything in relation to the bill; they present some kind of alternative view of what perhaps should be happening in this economy but without actually go into much detail. There is no proposition before the parliament to change the legislation that the Abbott coalition government has introduced; we have got a political statement. I will touch briefly on that.

Essentially, we are here because the previous Labor government made a massive error that put employee share schemes on life support. We want to heal that harm and get the momentum back into employee share schemes and options as a great way of energising enterprise. As we have heard, in 2009 the former Labor government changed the way employee share schemes and options were taxed. This deterred the use of employee share schemes in Australia. It is an epic Labor failure that we need to fix, and we are doing that tonight. Clearly, the government is fully in support of Australia's innovation and science capacity. That is a decoy observation Labor sought to inject into this discussion and one I would like to briefly deal with given that it has been the focus of Labor's contribution—not the actual remedy and rehabilitation of employee share schemes, which is the purpose of the bill.

In 2014-15, the government committed around $9 billion to innovation, science and research. There is a $484.2 million Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Program and a range of measures in the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda, including $188.5 million to fund Industry Growth Centres. This is all about innovation, science and research. Importantly, it is about taking those insights and discoveries and turning them into commercial activities that deliver jobs and improve living standards for our country and for our economy. The government is currently finalising its national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) plan, which will achieve tangible outcomes across the country for decades to come. Announced as part of the government's Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda, this $12 million investment will improve the focus on STEM subjects in primary and secondary schools across the country. The funding will invest over $7 million to provide innovative mathematics resources for teachers and students, provide over $3 million for greater exposure to computer coding across different year levels and contribute $500,000 for an innovation-focused Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) pilot program to help develop the next generation of innovators and graduates.

The Commonwealth government has announced new national science and research priorities to ensure our high performing science, research and innovation system delivers maximum benefit. The nine cross-disciplinary priorities are food, soil and water, transport, cybersecurity, energy, resources, advanced manufacturing, environmental change and health. These priorities will help our world-class science and research efforts to reflect the needs of industry, the national economy and the community. Taking those discoveries and research insights and better translating them into commercial outcomes for jobs and economic opportunity is very much our focus.

I will not spend any more time on that because clearly Labor was seeking not to improve this legislation but simply to make a political statement. As I outlined in my second reading speech, this bill will improve the tax arrangements for employee share schemes to make Australia a more attractive investment destination and to give start-up companies a better chance of success. This is because the Abbott coalition government understands the importance of creating good business conditions to encourage entrepreneurs to develop their companies here in Australia.

These changes which will come into effect for new shares and options issued from 1 July 2015 and build on our Jobs and Small Business package. They will provide a significant incentive for Australian companies and their employees to enter into employee share schemes and to work together to achieve synchronicity, with the goals of the organisation being aligned with the goals of the employees. We know that that produces productivity improvements and better outcomes by facilitating that common shared purpose and goal.

To facilitate the take-up of employee share schemes and options we are also producing template documentation so that the regulatory compliance task is not an obstacle to enterprises with an appetite to take up employee share schemes—being overwhelmed by the paperwork, regulatory and compliance task. It is a comprehensive package that really puts the wind back in the sails of employee share schemes and the great potential they offer our economy. That is why I commend this bill to the House with much enthusiasm.

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