Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

To be returned to represent the people of Petrie for a second time is humbling, to say the very least. I would like to begin by offering them my most sincere thanks and to say, 'I will not let you down.' I love the electorate of Petrie; it is my home. I feel extremely grateful for a childhood spent outside the borders of the big smoke. Days were carefree and saw me traversing the area between the boundaries of what would become the electorate I now represent. I know its demography like the back of my hand. If you have never visited Petrie, I encourage you to do so. I think you are actually coming up soon, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks. It is rich with natural wonders and thick with community spirit.

When the people of Petrie elected me a second time, I made the same commitment to myself that I made the first time: I will give all that I have to represent the best interests of the only community that I really know. I will continue to work hard for the people of Petrie. With all due respect, I am not here to mix it with you in this chamber. I have said it previously, and I will say it again with the greatest respect to each one of you here today: I would rather be home in my electorate than be knocking around the walls of Parliament House. If I could, each time I jumped on a plane to Canberra I would bring them all with me to show them around—to show them what we do here and how I represent them here. Petrie is a community of diverse interests and goals. It is important to me that we all have our say. Unfortunately, there is not room for everyone to be here in the chamber, but I do my very best to get out and talk to people through mobile offices and on the ground at different community meetings, listening to what people say is important to them. I guess that while they man the fort I join you as an electoral bugle of sorts to highlight the needs of each person, like me, that calls Petrie home. I bring my voice and each one of theirs to the seat of decision making, with one single goal: to work together to see that the communities of Petrie continue to grow and become the best they can be.

Today I have with me the concerns of the people of Petrie, and I would like to raise them with you. The people of Petrie tell me that the issues that sit at the top of their minds relate broadly to quality of life, costs of living, opportunity, health and employment. Company tax cuts, small business and jobs are things that are top of mind for the government. We spoke a lot about jobs and growth in the economy at the last election, and jobs are certainly a big issue in my electorate. Small business is the backbone of our community. It generates jobs, injects diversity and opportunity into the electorate, and fuels growth and prosperity for all. Locally, of course, I have been running the Job Seeker Boot Camp, where I have been inviting small businesses—those that employ five or more people—to come along and meet with people looking for work to explain what it is they look for when hiring. That has been quite successful, and I will continue to run that.

Company tax, of course, will provide welcome relief to businesses and workers and will boost the economy, which creates jobs. It sends a strong signal to the small-business and medium-business community in particular that, as a government, we are supporting them and thanking them for employing the majority of Australians. As Jodie Mae Ladhams from Bracken Ridge says to me:

Show support to Australians who work their butts off and pay their taxes, stop our companies from going bust, and make our small businesses profitable and successful…make Australia great again – strong industry, strong community…

I agree, Jodie, and I urge all members to support the Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan—a solid plan that will put money in the pockets of workers. Under the enterprise tax plan, the government will back small businesses by reducing their tax rate to 27½ per cent starting on 1 July 2017—this year—for those that turn over less than $10 million. The plan will deliver a lower tax rate for around 870,000 companies who employ more than 3.4 million workers, allowing them to invest, grow, hire and pay more. We are also doing a lot for small business in relation to the instant asset tax write-off, which is a great initiative and will definitely be highly utilised by businesses with turnover under $10 million. That will be a great opportunity from 1 July this year for businesses with turnover under $10 million, and it will send a strong signal to them that the government is supporting them, and that we want them to invest in more workers and more employees, to help grow the economy and their business.

In relation to company tax, the weight of company tax is carried by consumers and workers. More than half of the economic burden of corporate tax weighs on employees through lower wages and on consumers through higher prices. We know that business passes on costs through higher prices. Research like that from the Tax Foundation in the US shows that for every US$1 rise in state and local corporate tax collections, real wages fall by US$2.50 five years later. But thankfully, the reverse also applies: wages increase by US$2.50 with every US$1 reduction in state and local corporate income taxes. As Bill Shorten said when he was Assistant Treasurer:

Cutting the company income tax rate … leads to more jobs and higher wages.

But we do not hear that being quoted now by those opposite. More jobs and higher wages are both useful and necessary in order to get by. The OECD has said that corporate income taxes are the most harmful for growth, as they discourage the very activities of businesses that are most important for growth; those being investment in capital and productivity improvements. As Dustin Henegan from Northlakes says, 'when are we going to wake up?' Well, with the vote for the enterprise tax plan, I hope, Dustin! I definitely appreciate that comment.

Australia has one of the least competitive business tax rates in the world. Thankfully, this parliament is about to be handed the opportunity to change that. Recalibrating company tax in favour of the prosperity of Australians involves more than just tax cuts. As Max Colquhoun from Scarborough rightly points out: 'Get stuck into businesses that are avoiding tax.' Max, you are absolutely right. In December 2015 we passed the multinational tax avoidance bill which is now in place, and we are already seeing income flow from that. But it is also time to crack down further on multinational tax avoidance—and Max, you would be pleased to know that we plan to do that right now. In fact, legislation has been introduced. The diverted profits tax will put an extra $100 million in revenue alone into the government kitty next year. The diverted profits tax is a useful anti-avoidance provision which will impose a penalty tax on profits transferred to offshore associates. It will apply to multinational operations with global income greater than $1 billion and that are making income in Australia of more than $25 million. It arms the Australian Taxation Office with a powerful mechanism for tackling contrived arrangements and uncooperative taxpayers, and it provides the Commissioner of Taxation with extra powers to achieve this. By making it easier to apply Australia's anti-avoidance provisions and applying a 40 per cent rate of tax payable immediately, the diverted profits tax will complement the application of the existing anti-avoidance rules and will encourage greater compliance by large multinational enterprises with their tax obligations in Australia, including with Australia's transfer pricing rules, and encourage greater openness with the commissioner, allowing for more timely resolution of disputes.

These two initiatives, the DPT and the company tax cuts, demonstrate this government's commitment to Australian businesses and workers, to creating jobs and to repairing a budget that Labor dragged backwards through a bush. By investing in fairness, we secure a brighter future for all, and that is what we all want, isn't it? We all want that. Fairness is a fair expectation, and the people of Petrie want that. They have tightened their purse strings and have a fair expectation that we will do the same. They do not see the value in or necessity of MPs who have left parliament flying for free, and neither do I. It does not put food on their tables or on mine.

Just ask Chrissy Bonello from Scarborough in my electorate or Gary Swanson from Kippa-Ring, who have both raised this issue with me. Parliamentary expenditure and entitlements, they say, must be reformed. In fact, Gary said:

If you really care in making a change, I suggest you and the liberals and the other parties, all pass legislation to cease making payments and any other concessions that are paid to former prime ministers, ministers etc. that includes offices, travel, support staff which all cost the Australian tax payer.

Gary and Chrissy, you are absolutely right, and we recently cracked down on that, when we got rid of the gold travel pass for former members of parliament, who were able to fly. That has now completely gone. It still does apply for former prime ministers, but I would say to Gary and Chrissy that I think that is reasonable, because most former prime ministers still do work hard, whether it is Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd or John Howard. They all still have numerous contacts and represent the country. Maybe at some time in the future we could put a time frame on it—up to 15 years or something after leaving office.

The other thing I would say to Chrissy and Gary is that new MPs like me and you, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, who were elected after 2004, no longer receive pensions. So, when we leave parliament, it does not matter how long we have been here, we will not receive pensions. We get superannuation on top of our wage, like everyone else, and we have to wait until after the age of 55 before we can access that superannuation. It is an important point, because you will often hear people say, 'You get a pension, mate. You'll be right.' Well, I do not want a pension, I do not expect one and I do not get one. Having been in the private sector for all my life before coming into parliament, it is not something that I support, and I think it is important to put that on the record for my constituents.

In 2016 the government commissioned an independent review into the parliamentary entitlements system. All 36 of the review's recommendations were accepted by this government, and we are continuing to implement them. With the recent passage of the Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendment Bill 2017, the coalition government has abolished free travel for former parliamentarians, as I said before, and this is very important.

The authority that we are setting up will also act as a watchdog and adviser to provide oversight and certainty to Australians that their money is being spent appropriately. I think that is important, given that we earn right now, with the budget coming up in May, about $400 billion a year. That is how much we earn in income—$400 billion or so—from income tax from those people that work and from company tax from all those companies that do the right thing. But right now we are spending about $40 billion a year and we have done so for the last 10 years, since John Howard and Peter Costello left. If you add that up—$40 billion times 10—it is roughly $400 billion in accumulated debt plus interest that continues to grow and will be paid for by my children and the next generation. That will continue to grow.

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