Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Never could there be a more stark contrast opening up between a government and an opposition than in what we just heard from the shadow Treasurer. If you listened to the Treasurer last night delivering his economic plan for Australia, outlining, measure by measure, the confidence intervals that the government is putting into place so that businesses will continue to grow, so that we have a good plan for jobs and growth, and then listened to the shadow Treasurer opposite, it would tell you that the opposition has simply learnt nothing in three years and that they continue to be a reckless and negative opposition. You could not see a starker contrast.

This budget is clearing the path for economic growth and jobs in a stronger new economy. Listening to the Treasurer last night, Australians would be aware that this is a government that will stick to the economic plan that will make our economic transition a success. Australians know that the world is in difficult economic times. They know that we have to make this transition. Indeed, it is the households, the small businesses, the larger businesses and the ordinary Australians having a go that are making that transition every single day. This government is dedicated to producing and delivering on its economic plan to ensure that the government not only lives within its means, balances the budget and reduces the burden of long-term debt but also delivers real incentives for jobs and growth in our economy.

If the opposition wants to come into this chamber and lecture us on not having an economic plan, we can outline with absolute clarity what our economic plan is for Australians. I am going to speak to that plan once again so that the shadow Treasurer can get it, because he has missed it. He has not heard it. We have a plan that will ensure jobs and growth in Australia. It is multifaceted. It meets the needs of the economy and our people. It has policy settings that will not hold Australia back and will keep the nation's prosperity going. It includes an innovation and science program for start-up business and a defence plan for local high-tech manufacturing and technology. It has export trade deals, generating new business opportunities. It contains tax cuts and incentives for small business and hardworking families. This is a sustainable budget with crackdowns on multinational tax avoidance. It closes off loopholes. It guarantees funding—real dollars—for health, education and roads. It is based on real money that can meet these commitments.

Each of these six components in our economic plan targets affordable action. It will deliver lasting results. When we look at each facet of this plan, you can see what the Turnbull government has been doing from day one. The Turnbull government has been investing in innovation and science programs for start-up businesses. We are investing in new measures for different forms of capital, at the start-up phase of businesses and through crowdsourced equity funding—all the different new economy measures that will produce more start-up businesses with more innovation.

Our defence plan, as the industry minister said in question time, will leverage each and every single dollar of defence expenditure across the economy to ensure that we have that local high-tech manufacturing base and sustainable order cycles in our shipbuilding and ship enterprises across the country, ensuring that that investment in ongoing maintenance and sustainment of these vessels will be over the long term in Australia, with each and every single dollar that the government spends on the defence industry and in the industry portfolio. We have a real plan for jobs and growth using Commonwealth defence expenditure to ensure Australian industry is sustained.

It is also important to remember that we now have free trade agreements, thanks to this government, with all of our main export markets—something the shadow Treasurer did not mention in his speech. We have enabled free trade agreements with China, Japan, Korea and the USA—our top four export markets. The trade minister is working, and continuing the work of the former minister, to pursue a free trade agreement with one of the world's emerging economies, India.

We have a sustainable budget crackdown on tax. What you can see in all the measures are responsible measures on tax—measures that will ensure that we provide the right incentives to our economy and do not send the wrong signals to our hardworking small and medium businesses. We have a crackdown on tax avoidance through our new diverted profits tax, a successful measure out of the UK, and we have 1,000 ATO staff working on multinational tax to raise $3.7 billion. We have measures that have not been thought about before—whistleblower protections, penalties for nondisclosure and real action on multinational avoidance—that will deliver $3.7 billion. This is real money, costed by the ATO, not fantasy figures as we have seen in the opposition costings.

Importantly, the incentives in our tax plan are the real basis for growth and jobs in our economy. How else do you grow jobs in our economy except by providing incentives through our tax and innovation systems? How else can any government provide the right settings for small businesses to grow and become great medium and large businesses in Australia? That is why we are lifting the threshold for small business to $10 million immediately and reducing the rate of business tax to 27.5 per cent. All Australians who work in a small business—whether they run and operate a small business, want to start a small business or employ people in a small business—ought to pause and think very carefully about the settings that governments put in place for tax for small business across Australia. We are increasing the threshold to $10 million and we are reducing the rate.

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