Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Budgets certainly highlight values. That was demonstrated again last night and by the conversation that we are having in this chamber today. The main highlighted value for me in the budget last night was our respect for and acknowledgement of the importance of small business in our communities and our country. I understand, and I know this side of politics understands, the importance of unions and the importance of worker protections. That plays a role in business and in private enterprise in looking after those rights. But what those opposite do not understand is that the important thing in all of this is a healthy private sector. As you know, Deputy Speaker Vasta, small business is the biggest employer in this country by the proverbial country mile. It employs more Australians than big business and it employs more Australians than the public service. Let us add to that that the public servants in this country are paid for by the taxes from the private sector.

What do we as a government have to do? Our primary role to have a strong economy is to have a strong private sector. This tax cut is about that. Not only do we need to have small businesses employing and growing, we need them to be competitive in a global world. I know everyone on our side of politics understands that taxation is competitive. There are some businesses that may have to operate in a physical location, but in this increasingly digital world, in this increasingly global world, taxation is competitive. If we were to have our business tax rates at a higher level than those of our competitors it would discourage people from setting up business. That is an absolute fact. I recall the example of Ireland. Labor would have been proud of Ireland in the early eighties; it was a high-taxing, high-spending government. Then the Irish worked out they were going broke, so they lowered the company tax rate from what was something like 60 per cent to 10 per cent. What happened almost instantly, over a period of about three years, they started collecting more money. They started collecting more money at a 10 per cent tax rate than they were at 60 per cent.

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