Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the motion put forward by the member for Brisbane. This motion, quite frankly, is nothing more than a push piece of self-indulgent nonsense trying to pump up the devastatingly flawed—and, if you listen to the newspapers, soon to be doomed—big business tax plan of this Liberal government. Following the member for Boothby's small business motion last week, which I also spoke on, I am disappointed that the member for Brisbane has decided to present this vacuous and ideological vision that seems to illustrate the government's misguided priorities when it comes to small business.

I have to say that at least the member for Boothby's motion last week had its foundations in reality—and it is very noble of me to support the member for Boothby's motion. It spoke about the importance of small business to local economies, it spoke about the importance of employment and the effects of a strong local small business sector, and it spoke about the flow-on effects of people shopping locally. And it asked the members of this House to promote that to their constituency, which I was more than proud and happy to do. In contrast, this motion serves absolutely zero purpose other than as a vain attempt to cling to a policy that already has one foot in the grave.

Moving past the self-serving tone of this motion, let me at least pretend that it makes an attempt to deal with the substantive issues facing small business owners and their employees. As I said last week, my electorate of Lindsay in Western Sydney is home to a very large number of small businesses—in fact, there are roughly 9,000 small businesses registered in my community, employing around 15,000 to 20,000 people. We are a community of hardworking and determined people, as I often say in this place, and I know our local small business owners demonstrate these traits in spades. And, while I think of our small business owners in Lindsay as being exceptional, we know the values of hard work and determination are spread throughout Australia's small business community.

We have 2.1 million small businesses across the country employing roughly five million Australians, so it is crucial that we support small businesses as much as we can. What we should not be doing is spending billions of taxpayer dollars subsidising big businesses that are making huge profits, under the guise of supporting small business. You do not help small business owners and employees by misappropriating billions of dollars of hard-earned money and giving it straight to the big four banks. The member for Sydney—and my great colleague—Tanya Plibersek, often says that, if you asked someone on the street if they would prefer to give $2,000 to a local school or to a bank, they would pick the school every time. That is something for this Liberal government to take away from this.

This motion is actually all about their failed, flawed $50 billion plan. Before those opposite start jumping up and down and shouting about how great their unfair tax company plan is, which I am sure they have been doing prior to my arrival, I am happy to remind the chamber that it is Labor's small business tax plan, not this government's, that will most assist Lindsay. The coalition's policy will also add $4 billion in interest debt to the budget with their plan. Our plan, though, correctly focuses on supporting small business—those with an annual turnover that is under $2 million. There are very few people in my electorate who would think a business with a turnover of $10 million per year should be getting a tax cut while they have their penalty rates slashed.

That is not all: this government are cutting pensions and family payments, and they are making 1.5 million families worse off under their childcare changes. They want to see young unemployed people suffer the indignity of having no support for four weeks and then, when they do start receiving financial support, the amount of money that they are able to receive will be cut.

I have been told time and time again in my electorate that the Liberals' business tax plan is woefully targeted, and everyone knows exactly what it is—a tax cut for the government's big business mates and/or donors at the expense of small business owners and those struggling to get by. Again, I reiterate: it will add $4 billion in debt to the extra interest charges. For a government that is continually obsessed with debt and deficit, I would say that is pretty astonishing.

We have now learned that the recent penalty rates decision this government has supported will also cost another $650 million to the budget through lowered tax revenue, because people will lose take-home pay and end up paying more in welfare spending. The whole situation reeks of unfairness. This is a government obsessed with looking after its big business mates at the expense of ordinary people.

Let's compare the government's plan with Labor's small business tax plan. Our plan, which will see the company tax rate reduced for all businesses with a turnover of less than $2 million, will benefit 9,626 businesses in my electorate out of a total of 10,313 registered businesses. That is 93 per cent of all businesses in Lindsay benefiting from Labor's tax plan. It shows that the government's big business tax plan, which will cost $50 billion and hand billions of dollars of taxpayers' money straight to the big four banks, is focused solely on wealthy business owners in the north and east of Sydney and not on us in the west. The reality is that the policy is unfair no matter how the government dresses it up and tries to sell it to the public. This government needs to take a leaf out of Bill Shorten's playbook and implement policies that put people first. (Time expired)

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