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

I will take the Manager of Opposition Business's interjection. He asks if we will campaign on that. We will campaign on small business. We will campaign on tax cuts for small business. We will campaign on lifting the threshold to $10 million, and I will tell you why. While we lower the rate for small business, small businesses will be enabled to grow and add more workers. They will be able to access the instant asset write-off. They will spend more in our economy. They will enable more purchasing. They will enable their business to grow, adding more employees. Jobs and growth—that is why the coalition will campaign on tax cuts for small and medium Australian businesses.

It is the Labor Party that wants to deny a tax cut to 90,000 small and medium Australian businesses that are doing it tough competing against multinationals and other large competitors in Australia. It is the Labor Party that wants to deny a tax cut to those businesses. It says you are a large business in this country if you get $2 million of turnover. That is the Labor Party's position. It says you are suddenly a large multinational company if you have a turnover of $2 million or if you sell one sandwich over $2 million you are suddenly a large business and you do not deserve a tax cut. That is the Labor Party's position. We absolutely reject that notion. We reject it because we understand the real economy. We understand how hard it is for a small business to grow in this country. We understand what non-competitive rates of business tax do on the international stage when you want to export your goods, and we understand what they do to your ability to add an extra worker, to put on an extra shift, to grow your business or to invest in a new asset.

These 90,000 businesses employ 2.2 million people. We should not understate the importance of this point. There are 2.2 million people employed in those 90,000 businesses that the Labor Party say are too large. These are Aussie small businesses working hard every day. This is turnover, not profit. Those opposite are making a big mistake with this, and I am happy to help them so. We will campaign on this every day. We will walk every street in every electorate and we will tell people: 'If you want to grow your business, if you want to get ahead in this country, if you want to add more people on, if you want to add an extra shift, if you want to add an extra worker, the Labor Party will stop you. The Turnbull government will enable you to grow your business and enable you to grow jobs.'

That is why this is a budget for growth and jobs. That is why this is a real economic plan. This is not a set of measures; this is a real plan for businesses to grow and adds jobs in this country—more jobs and more growth. We combine this with our measures in income tax. We are going to make sure that half a million Australians do not enter the second highest marginal tax rate. There could be no more important priority in the income tax spectrum at the moment than to prevent half a million hardworking Australians, average full-time income earners, from moving into the second highest category of income tax. There could be nothing more important.

Ms Butler interjecting—

I take the member for Griffith's interjection. 'Are we trying to insult people?' No. This is a fair budget for hardworking people and average full-time income earners are hardworking people, and they deserve a tax cut. They deserve to not move into a higher category of tax, and we have to do what we can afford at the moment. Given the debt and deficit legacy that we have been left with by Labor, these are all affordable measures. They are real money. They are real, costed measures that will deliver for Australians. It is our 10-year tax enterprise plan that will grow jobs, grow the economy and deliver the growth that Australia needs. It is the Labor Party that does not understand this economy and cannot be trusted with the serious job of running a serious economy.

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