Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are lots of words that are said in this parliament and sometimes those words are recorded for posterity. People must sometimes wonder about the debates that take place in this parliament, but one of the things we should take time to do in this place is to reflect on the small businesses we have in our communities.

We have 15,000 small businesses in the electorate of Mallee. I do not mind taking a little bit of time to talk about some of those small businesses and to celebrate their contribution. Since we have come to government, we have gone on a bit of a journey. We have had to get finances back on track; we have had to set the strategic framework for those small businesses to function. A lot of those businesses in my electorate are exporters. I reflect on the fact that the currency has moved from 105 cents down to 75 cents, and that has helped those exporters, many of whom export to the Asia-Pacific region. I reflect too on the fact that we spent so long fluffing around the edges of free trade agreements, but, since the coalition has come to power, we have locked away a free trade agreement with China, locked away a free trade agreement with South Korea and a free trade agreement with Japan. These have certainly helped the small businesses in my electorate.

There is a great diversity of small businesses in my electorate. There is Oscar Furniture that make aids, appliances and furniture for people with disabilities and for senior Australians—my wife is an occupational therapist who often gets things from that small business. We have Mocha Mecca that makes coffee. Did you know Mildura was the second place in Victoria to have its own barista? We have a very strong Italian community and, if you do not serve good coffee, you do not make a living in Mildura. We also have Phil Hand Electrical—he's a small businessman who employs a couple of people doing electrical work—and we have a guy called Frank Pedulla, who grows wine grapes. We have people in our electorate who do so many exciting things, and it is a good use of the parliament's time to celebrate them and their contributions to the Australian economy.

Having a low currency and free trade agreements creates opportunity, but the changes that we are talking about are about taking that opportunity and turning it into reality. If you look at these small businesses, there is always something they could purchase that could drive their productivity—perhaps help them to market their product better or do their payroll better or get them some infrastructure. This is not a $20,000 grant; this is in fact a tax deduction. There is a difference which needs to be understood. This is something that says, 'We will stand behind your business—now that we have the currency settings right and now that we have the free trade agreements and opportunities in Asia-Pacific region—and we will instil some confidence and strengthen your arm by allowing you to have accelerated depreciation or instant tax write-offs of purchases up to $20,000.'

Over the last few years we went through some very dry times in the Mildura area. The federal Labor government, which left water management to Penny Wong, delivered perhaps one of the most damaging policies to our irrigation community. They purchased the water from a block of land on the conditions that the irrigation infrastructure was pulled out and that that land could not produce anything agricultural for five years. Think about that for a moment: the federal Labor government purchased water on the conditions that not only we do not produce anything but we also pull out that water infrastructure. In my opinion that was one of the worst policies we ever saw from a water minister in the history of the Commonwealth—we used federal funds to take out productivity.

By contrast, our government has committed $103 million to build a modern irrigation system and, now that we have developed free trade agreements and great opportunities, people are asking to get their land back into productivity. They say: 'Can I start producing something back on that land? It is a shame that land had to have that irrigation infrastructure pulled out.' The five years are nearly over, and they are able to bring that land back into productivity. Not only are we batting for them and helping them to bring that land back into productivity, but we are also giving them an instant tax write-off to put that irrigation infrastructure in so that they can go back and actually produce something. The contrast could not be starker. The previous government's view was: 'Shut down, pull up, wind down. There are no jobs, no productivity, no exports, no irrigation infrastructure for your rural community.' That was their way forward. It is our government that has invested in the delivery system, that has developed the markets and the free trade agreements, that has the currency at the right level for them to hit those markets and capitalise on that opportunity and has put the irrigation infrastructure through tax write-offs. All of this says that we stand behind the producers and that we believe in what they can do. This is the real reason the polls are going up. People are realising that one view wanted to shut down regional Australia while the other view wants to grow regional Australia.

Politicians do not create wealth; I said that in my maiden speech. We think we do, and sometimes we get a bit ahead of ourselves and think we are the ones who are creating the wealth. We are only the custodians of the wealth that the Australian people develop and grow. A key factor to growing our wealth is the men and women who get up every day to run a small business, along with the people they employ. Collectively, the hard work of Australians grows our prosperity, and we are entrusted with that prosperity to distribute it equitably to look after senior Australians, to create educational opportunities for our children. We also take care of defence; we build the roads; and we look after health care. It is the small businesses that we should celebrate. I think it is wise that over the coming hours that speaker after speaker in this place present the stories of those they represent and highlight those small businesses, because we value those small businesses. We commend them for their contribution to the country. We stand behind them, and we are demonstrating that through these major changes—changes that are a complete contrast to those of the previous government. People will see them as green shoots. They will literally see these green shoots as vineyards, table grapes, almonds and citrus. They will see them in my electorate, and they will say, 'Aren't we happy that we finally have a government that believes in our future rather than one that thinks the future is only made by shutting us down.'

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