Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wide Bay for his question; it is a good one. As the member for Wide Bay knows, there are 17½ thousand small businesses in his electorate, and this government backs each and every one of them each and every day.

Tuesday, 9 May was a great day for small business. It is the day we enshrined in law our tax cuts for small business, down to 27½ per cent, the lowest they have been for many, many decades. It is the day we enshrined in law the definition of a small business as having a $10 million turnover. Labor mistakes 'profit' for 'turnover'. It is turnover. This means that thousands more small businesses now pay less tax and can have access to the $20,000 instant asset write-off program—indeed, the 12-month extension. It is the day Wide Bay businesspeople such as Jason McPherson at CPM Engineering, David Phillips at Pedal Power Plus and Dave Hetherington from Goodyear Jewellers in Gympie—all of whom I met with the member in his electorate recently—knew this government had their back. It is also the day we delivered a budget boost for small businesses, with an extension to the popular instant asset write-off, because we know it helps them grow. It is the day we put $300 million on the table to incentivise states and territories to further cut through red tape. We have already cut $5.8 billion annually from the regulatory burden. Every day small businesses pay the wages of 5.6 million Australians, every day they provide opportunities to locals in communities across the country and every day this government stands by them, with them.

I was in Queensland last week as part of that state's Small Business Week. I heard across the state, as I heard in Gympie, that small business wants to grow. I heard firsthand from Queenslanders such as Kate Marland of Warners Fine Jewellery in Bundaberg, who used the instant asset write-off to purchase a computer and printer for her business. Kate's is a family enterprise and, thanks to the government's extension to the instant asset write-off, she is now looking to purchase a new drill, so that her dad—this is a true family enterprise—can more efficiently make the handmade jewellery for her shop to sell. Kate is just like Joy De Beer of Take Away Bins from Brisbane in the member for Bonner's electorate, who told me that our tax cuts 'saved' her business.

While we want a stronger small-business sector, there are some who do not—and I am looking at them. There they are! And 9 May also revealed what small business fears about those opposite: that, while we back small business, those opposite turn their backs on small business each and every day. Why do you hate small business? Why are you standing in the way? (Time expired)

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