Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Measures No. 3) Bill 2015. The dry part of the bill is that this bill is the third of four bills the coalition government has introduced as part of the government's $5.5 billion Growing Jobs and Small Business package. When I say it is the dry part: it is a massive change for small business and a massive boost for small business, but it is a reasonably dry bill. This bill amends taxation laws to help provide taxation relief to small businesses and provide less red tape.

As the member for Higgins and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer just said, more than 70 per cent of our two million small businesses are unincorporated. Schedule 1 of this bill will provide a tax offset to small businesses with a turnover below $2 million. The tax offset will be five per cent of the business's tax liability. Schedule 2 amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to provide an immediate deductibility of expenses to small businesses with a turnover below $2 million. Schedule 3 introduces legislation to allow small businesses to access fringe benefits tax for portable electronic devices, provided they are for work purposes.

In my electorate everyone understand the nature of small business, and lots of my friends have small businesses which do more than $2 million. They would like us to do more in this space—and we would like to do more in this space. I do not think there is anybody in this parliament who does not back small business or understand the urgency small business must have to prosper. We have, in this place, a willingness to put our hand in other people's pockets; that is how we operate, and it is very important. But we must be able to do it from a position where they understand it.

My parents worked very, very hard in small businesses. The traditional family unit of dad at work and mum at home when the kids got home from school did not apply to us. Mum and dad worked very hard in their businesses. My dad and my mum did not get into small business because they liked filling out forms. They did not get into small business because they liked working long hours. They got into small business because they wanted an opportunity to create wealth, and an opportunity for us, their children, to prosper. That we three boys, my two brothers and I, have done reasonably well in our lives and gone on to those things is in no small measure due to the effort of my parents' work, opening a shop in New Farm in Brisbane at five in the morning and closing at eight o'clock at night 363 days a year, with a half day on Good Friday and a half day on Christmas Day.

In my maiden speech I made the point that what government has to do is get our hands out of small businesses' pockets and get off their backs. Accountants and solicitors must no longer become de facto tax collectors and compliance officers. They must be the ones that allow small businesses to grow and allow small businesses to plan their next move as opposed to making sure they do not get into trouble.

Everyone in this place, I hope, understands that government does not create wealth. Business creates wealth. What government can do is to set up the circumstances around which business can operate. If we do that successfully, business operates, people get employed, wealth is generated and reinvested in our community, and so on. People buy cars; people buy houses; people buy TVs; people buy everything. They send their kids to school; teachers get employed—all that sort of thing. What the government does do is to get some big projects that small business can operate through. Small business cannot do the $500 million dam. Small business cannot do the $16 billion Carmichael mine. But what small business can do is form part of a logistics chain that provides services for those big facilities.

I have said before in this House—and I will say it again until something happens: what we have done in this place, and in the state government in particular, when it has come to the tendering process, is to have made these things so big that the local firms can no longer tender. We think we are saving money by making a $200 million job instead of $10 million or $20 million jobs. We say that that provides good economies of scale and certainty for the taxpayer. But are we providing the best value for the taxpayer? The way I see it—and I have said it before in this House—is that, when you see those big jobs now and you see those things done—and, again, I will state that I have no actual evidence of this—the profit is taken at the very start; it is not what is left over at the end.

It is about the subcontractors; it is about the person who lives in the city—and I especially talk from a regional perspective here. These jobs come in. We have complied and we have made these things so hard to get there that only big businesses can actually achieve all those things. We get tender documents that are a foot thick. We turn them over; we go to the back; we check the numbers—the lowest number still gets it! But, because the numbers are so big, and the compliance with the regulations is so big, our local firms cannot do these jobs. So we get a Lend Lease, a John Holland or a Thiess to come into towns in regional Australia and in regional Queensland, and they do the job—and we get a great bit of infrastructure. But the profit does not stay in our community. The people do not stay in our community. The infrastructure is there, but the money has only washed through our community once.

What government must do, when we get these big projects, is to make sure that they are structured for the local firms—with the taxpayer being protected at all times and value being given to the taxpayer. If we could break those things down to $20 million or $30 million jobs and let the local contractor have a real shot at these things, I think that we would be able to show that we can get better value for money in our communities and can get these things to wash through. What I mean by that is that the first firm gets it; everyone is employed by them—all the way down to the bloke who drives the pie van that comes out to see them at morning tea who is making some money on the way through. We are all winning.

My seat of Herbert is based in Townsville. When it comes to the north of Australia, what we need to do is make sure we are backing our industry. We need to make sure that we are making it as easy for people to get into business as we possibly can. This bill principally applies to smaller businesses, and we must make sure that when we get these small businesses we are able to back them.

That brings me to something else I want to talk about today, and that is the Carmichael mine. Make no mistake, the approval of Adani's Carmichael mine was not turned over by the Federal Court. I understand that one part of one briefing note, one bit of paper, was not in the briefing note that went to the minister. We need to make sure that that mine gets approved as quickly as possible. Whether we like it or not, the problem for industry in northern Australia, the problem for industry in Townsville, is that we pay for the wastage of power from the Pine Rivers shire, from the Pine Rivers all the way through. Industry has to pay for all the power that is shed through transmission. We cannot get a real go with that. So, what Townsville Enterprise, the people around Townsville and our region, and I are doing is getting together to do our own energy white paper. We will be feeding this into the northern Australia development people and feeding it into the office of Ian Macfarlane, the Minister for Industry and Science.

When it comes to power in North Queensland, the Carmichael mine, being at Claremont, will need some form of power there. What will most likely happen is that they will build their own power station there and burn the overburden to create electricity. What can we as a government do? With our new renewable energy target, with our new emissions scheme, what can we do to make that better? What can we do in our region to make these things happen? What can we do in our region to assist with those things?

I have always been of the opinion that what I want in Townsville is a stinking great big coal fired power station right in the heart of Townsville so that we can ensure power is delivered as cheaply as possible. The question I have asked Townsville Enterprise to ask the experts in our area is why that should not be done; why we need a mosaic; why Tully-Millstream, with its hydroelectricity, should be used; why we have the world's best solar power precinct west of Hughenden; why we have even wind, at the Kennedy wind farm; why the Burdekin dam cannot be raised to produce electricity; why we cannot use the ethanol coming from North Queensland Bio-Energy at Ingham; why they cannot all go into a mosaic; and why, through the development of northern Australia, we as a government cannot bring in and provide the connectivity around that so we have a mosaic of power supply to make sure that our energy market is competitive, is cost-effective and gives as much help to big business as humanly possible. If we get big business going, it gets small business started, and that is what this bill is all about. That is what government is supposed to do. Government is supposed to set the agenda so that small business can operate in this space. If we get the big picture right, small business will flourish. We do not have to do anything for them, because they are doing it already.

What we do have to do is tell them to take the handbrake off and tell them there will be certainty. At the moment, my city is seeing a lack of confidence, and that confidence comes from things like this mine, which has been in the offing for an awfully long time now. This is a good project not just for North Queensland, not just for Australia; this is a good project for India and this is a good project for the world. We need to be able to produce this stuff and be able to get this stuff out of here, because that is good for everyone. Coal will still be a major player in our city. It will still be a major player in our country. I am proud to stand here and say that we have a fantastic mine west of Townsville, and I will fight for it every day in my community. If need be, I will fight the election on it—but, gee, I hope we have already started digging by then.

This bill is all about making sure that we are doing as much as possible to get out of the road for small business. If the federal government can get the macro right, the micro will look after itself. We can take these little bits of red tape away from small business, and small business can have that conversation with government: 'I understand now.'

The scary thing is that, in the first year of our omnibus repeal days, we removed over 50,000 pages of legislation, and you know what? No-one noticed. No-one noticed that we removed over 50,000 pages of legislation. No-one noticed that we removed over 75,000 rules and regulations in this place. That is how much work we have had to do. What we are doing now—the job that Christian Porter, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, is doing—is a big job, but it is worth doing because we need to support our industry.

We need to support not just the areas we are already but also the areas we are going to be. If there are going to be five million or six million people in the north of Australia, we are going to need major energy and we are going to need major input. We are going to need good baseload power, but we will need it to be delivered in a mosaic of fashions that makes sure that we are meeting our world targets. I have always said that everything we do in our lives impacts on the environment and it is how we manage those impacts that makes us work.

This bill is about making sure that this parliament, this government, this party, is doing what it can to get out of the road to make sure that small businesses have the opportunity to grow, because, if they can grow, it means their kids are going to school and their kids are getting cars, which means that mechanics are getting work, which means that the service stations are working, which means that everyone in our community benefits. That is what this legislation is about and that is what government has to be about, as far as I am concerned.

I support this legislation. I think it is a great piece of legislation, but it is just start. I thank the House.

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