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

I want to pick up on a point mentioned earlier by the member for Petrie. He brought up the example of the backpacker tax, and we are talking about the issue of inequality. The previous Labor government, in fact, brought in the backpacker tax of 32.5 per cent. We were told by industry groups that a tax at that level would not work and the backpackers would not come. We obviously did not want the blueberries and other crops to just rot away without being picked, so we lowered the tax to 19 per cent. Why did we lower the tax to 19 per cent? We did so because that is the lowest rate of taxation you pay in Australia. The lowest tax rate in Australia cuts in at 19 per cent. We felt that it was fair and reasonable that a backpacker here picking fruit standing next to an Australian worker should pay the same rate of tax. So their inequality measure is that they actually want to the backpacker to pay less tax than the Australian worker. So they want to almost make it easier for foreign workers to do Australian jobs. That is not an inequality that we want to get into.

Some of the points that have been raised by members of the opposition talk about us and them. I think the member for Reid said it very well: 'There is no us and them in this country. There is simply us.' We make no bones about the fact that we want to help those who are having a go. We want to set the parameters of this country so that if you are trying to run a small business or employ other people we make it as easy for you as we can.

In fact, I would like to acknowledge Candy from Candylane Fashion Boutique, who is in the chamber today. She is a small business owner and operator in Alstonville, in my electorate, who employs not only herself but other people as well. We want to make life easier for Candy. That is why we have brought in the small business tax cut: because we know that small business is the biggest driver of employment in this country and that it is important that we extend this to as many businesses as we can.

I was interested too—I struggled, but I actually did listen to the Leader of the Opposition earlier. He went back to the Hawke and Keating days and started to discuss Reaganomics and Thatcher, and Hawke and Keating, but he did not go on to mention some of the things that the Hawke and Keating governments did. But I will remind members opposite, because it is important that they learn the lessons of people they regard as great Labor legends. Do you know what Hawke and Keating did? They lowered company tax rates. They lowered company tax rates enormously. They took them from levels like 60 per cent down into the 40s. The lowered them progressively over time.

Do you know why your great previous Labor leaders did that? Because they understood what drives job growth in this country and what drives economic growth in this country. They knew that we had to remain competitive with countries and tax rates overseas. Your great Labor legends lowered company tax rates, and not just for small business—what we are proposing in the short-term—but for big business, for everyone. Your great Labor leaders understood that our company tax rate had to remain competitive and they lowered it enormously.

Deputy Speaker, as you would probably know, we have created 160,000 jobs just in the last 12 months. We are doing it through a whole array of measures, whether it be reducing red tape or, again, making things easier for small business. Labor, unfortunately—it is easy to do, and we saw the Leader of the Opposition do it today—are running populist politics and using fear as the great motivator. That is why they are opposing things that they previously supported. That includes business tax cuts.

As I think the previous member on our side, the member for Petrie, suggested, you would think from listening to Labor that we are actually cutting money to essential services. We are not. Money spent on education has increased. It was $13 billion when we got into government in 2013 and in the forward estimates it is projected to be $20 billion by 2020. It is the same with health spending. We have also increased spending on health every year. The great failure of the other side is that they do not know how to create the money. They think there is a gold and honey pot out there. We need to support business so that we have more taxpayer dollars to support social services.

See this speech in context