Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me pleasure to rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2015-2016 and related bills before us today. The 2015 budget delivers for Tasmania as it delivers for the people in my electorate of Lyons. The Jobs for Families package will give parents more choice when work-family commitments are being balanced. Low- and middle-income families using the childcare system will be $1,500 per year better off as a result of the initiatives in the budget. From 2017 families on a combined income between $65,000 and $170,000 a year will be $30 a week better off as a result of the Jobs for Families package. As the member for Hindmarsh also mentioned, the introduction of trialling nannies will be of great benefit to people working in the police force and the fire department and people working unsociable hours in the agricultural space. This will provide an enormous opportunity, as well as potentially being able to drive down the cost of child care, which went up enormously under the previous government.

The big-ticket item—and this is certainly the feedback that I am getting from my electorate—has been the small business package. Some would describe it as a game-changer. Here is a government, finally, that is prepared to give back small business some of their own money. We should never forget that the taxes which government is charged with spending come from the dollars that were earned by people paying income tax or small businesses paying tax. We know that many of these are family businesses and we know that they will spend this money better to grow business and create jobs in regional Tasmania than any government could ever do. We welcome the Labor Party's support to back small businesses across Australia. The damage done, though, to small business under Labor was extraordinary. They do not 'get' small business and they do not 'get' independent contractors; we do on this side. I spent a lifetime working with farmers, many of whom are indeed small businesses.

Going back a couple of weeks, it was the Saturday morning after the budget was delivered and I happened to be in the town of New Norfolk in southern Tasmania. I had my little brochures and I was taking the information there, not quite knowing what the response would be. As I walked up the street and started going into the hairdressers, the cafes and the other small businesses up the main street, I very quickly realised that the word had got around. They were absolutely overjoyed, particularly with the instant asset write-off, which I will touch on in a minute.

Mr Tehan interjecting—

Indeed. We have the lowest tax rate in 50 years for small business—28½ per cent, down from 30 per cent—thank you, member for Wannon—has been very much welcomed. But, of course, only a minority of small businesses are incorporated. For the unincorporated businesses, we will see a five per cent deduction—that is for 1.7 million small businesses around the country. The deduction is capped at $1,000. There is, as I mentioned, the accelerated depreciation to increase the threshold for immediate deductibility, from $1,000 to $20,000, and doesn't small business love the instant a write-off.

In the agricultural sector, farmers—who are so important to Tasmania, so important to our country, so important to my electorate of Lyons—absolutely welcomed the immediate deductibility for water infrastructure, fencing, fodder storage and conservation with the three-year depreciation schedule that has been included in this budget.

Small business employs 4.5 million Australians; 96 per cent of the businesses in our country are small businesses. As the Prime Minister often reminds us: this was the best budget ever for small business. Can I also remind my electorate particularly that funding for health in the state of Tasmania over the four years of the forward estimates from budget 2014-15 goes up by nearly 35 per cent. That is an extraordinary amount of money; despite what those on the other side say—out into the never-never. The figures that were never put down in black and white—we cut spending. The facts are that, over the forward estimates funding for health in Tasmania has gone up, as has funding for schools. In fact, funding for schools in the state of Tasmania—Madam Deputy Speaker, you will be astounded to know—has gone up by 37 per cent—

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