Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

In the absence of my good friend and colleague the indefatigable member for Dunkley, the Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson, it is left to me to tell the chamber and the Australian people why this budget was a winner for them. This budget delivered on the government's promise to pay back Labor's debt and to lay the framework and the foundation for further growth and job creation in the Australian economy. It essentially had three key themes.

The first theme was to support small business and jobs. The fact that we were able to deliver a tax cut for 96 per cent of all businesses in Australia—some two million businesses—was the reason this budget was so well received. If you were an incorporated business, you got a 1.5 per cent tax cut. If you were an unincorporated business, you got a discount of up to five per cent up to $1,000. This was a great boost to the small businesses of Australia. You got accelerated depreciation of $20,000. We saw businesses in Australia like car yards, cafes, restaurants, small businesses like pubs and clubs, and financial planners, who are sitting in this room, benefit from the fact that we supported small business. And we cut red tape as well, which is also extremely significant. A lot of it was due to the great work of my colleague who has now entered this place, the member for Dunkley.

The other key element of the small business and jobs package in this budget was the fact that we partnered with groups like the Brotherhood of St Lawrence in a $200 million plus program to help get people, particularly young people who were neither in work nor in education, an opportunity to get the skills to get in front of an employer. We had a work experience program, where a person could work for up to 25 hours a week for four weeks and the employer would get supported. We had a program called Restart, where we have now accelerated the payment to the employer, who can get up to $10,000 to take on someone over the age of 50 who is on income support. That is because we recognise, particularly with an ageing population, how important it is to keep people in work and to get people in work. So that was the first theme.

The second theme was about families and particularly child care, with a $3.5 billion package, on top of the $5.5 billion for jobs and small business, which is based on the work of the Productivity Commission, which is all designed to get more people into the workforce, particularly women. If we can get an increase in the number of women in our workforce to where Canada is—let's say an extra six points—that is worth $25 billion to our economy.

The third key theme was about the integrity of our tax system, and particularly going after those multinationals who may be engaged in transfer pricing and profit shifting. We have not only extended the GST to the importation of intangibles, like Netflix, but we have also strengthened part IVA of the anti-avoidance provision of the tax act. I think that is an important legacy.

We have also found money to go into national security. We have our people overseas fighting to support freedom and security around the world, as well as back here at home; we have found an extra $1.2 billion. We have found more than an extra $1 billion for the PBS. It will go on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for important anti-cancer drugs and the like. And we have done all of this while paying back Labor's debt. We inherited a budget deficit of $48 billion. We have got it down to $35 billion next year. In three years time it will be $7 billion and then we will eventually get into surplus. The message is: our debt will be $110 billion lower over the next decade than it would otherwise be under the Labor Party. This was a great budget, and the fact that small business has received such a big support, the fact that consumer confidence and business confidence is up is due to the hard work of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Small Business and the entire backbench and frontbench of the coalition.

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