David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is good to second this important motion from the member for Forde, focusing as it does on the government's very important initiatives in the small business sector. Of course, those initiatives all have a very strong focus around productivity because ultimately, at the end of the day, the thing that drives living standards in the long run is productivity. There are other elements of the economy that ebb and flow over time—the terms of trade prices and so on, and obviously the degree to which there is participation in the economy helps to promote economic growth—but there is absolutely nothing which is more fundamental than productivity. It is one of those terms that get thrown around a little, but essentially it means the value of goods and services that we produce in a given unit of time. The more valuable the goods and services that we produce in a given amount of time the more wealth we create. The more wealth that the economy creates the higher living standards are across the board. It is absolutely fundamental to the government's economic agenda to drive productivity growth. We see in the measures in the budget a very strong focus on assisting small businesses to make their businesses as productive as possible.

As we know, the vast majority of Australian businesses are in fact small businesses. They employ many millions of Australians and they form the bedrock of local communities. Indeed, in my electorate of Banks the thriving commercial centre of Hurstville and other major centres in Mortdale and Peakhurst, and the large manufacturing centres in Padstow, really are the backbone of our local economy. Small businesses in my electorate and indeed around the country will benefit enormously from these measures.

The $20,000 instant asset write-off basically means that businesses that were putting off a decision to invest in some new productive equipment for their business are accelerating that decision—bringing it forward. Of course with businesses investing in equipment which enables them to run their business more effectively, that is the essence of productivity right there. It allows labour to produce goods and services more efficiently.

Right around my electorate we are seeing a very strong response to these initiatives. Just last week it was tremendous to have the Prime Minister at the Buzzbar Espresso in Mortdale. The owner there, Mr Matt Alderton, took us through all of the various purchases that he was going to make in his various businesses to assist in the growth of that business. As I said, it is helping to grow productivity.

It is also a very important productivity-boosting measure that under these changes businesses will be able to expend all their start-up costs immediately—accounting costs, legal costs and so on. That is important for productivity because what we want to see are more and more small businesses start. We want to see more and more businesses, especially in those high-growth areas of the economy—areas like technology and internet and so on, where I spent my career prior to coming here—those businesses which will tend, over time, to become a bigger part of the economy and be highly productive. They will be assisted by these measures. Now, rather than businesses having to absorb the cash cost of those start-up costs immediately—only being able to claim them back through tax over four or five years—they will be able to claim them back immediately. That is an important cash injection for those businesses in those often very difficult times when they are starting up and getting things off the ground.

It is also getting rid of those complex provisions about capital gains tax hitting businesses when they restructure. That is also very effective in helping businesses to move forward and to focus on building a productive enterprise rather than getting bogged down in bureaucracy and red tape.

These are tremendous initiatives and I strongly support this motion.

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