Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Accelerated Depreciation For Small Business Entities) Bill 2017. It is worth noting that I follow the member for Barker. I believe he is a true champion of the small business sector, even though he may not believe that himself, so it is timely that we are talking about what is great about small businesses and how we are supporting them. This bill amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to enable small businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $10 million to claim an immediate tax deduction for eligible individual assets costing less than $20,000 first used, installed or ready by 30 June 2018.

This bill extends by 12 months the popular and successful 2015-16 budget measure 'Growing Jobs and Small Business—expanding accelerated depreciation for small businesses'. This is welcome news. This legislation was introduced in 2015 after extensive stakeholder consultation, including with the Australian Taxation Office, small business stakeholder groups and professional tax and accounting bodies. There has been very strong stakeholder support for extending this measure in addition to all the other hundreds of small businesses around the country. Extending the time in which small businesses can depreciate capital expenditures at the higher threshold will improve cash flow and business activity by releasing those funds back to the small business owner that would otherwise be tied up in depreciating assets. This is good news for small business.

So why are small businesses so important? A strong and successful small business community means simply more jobs for Australians and more opportunities to build vibrant local communities right across the country. Small business employs by far the highest number of Australians when compared to any other sector. We all know that. We hear that almost daily in this place. There are more than six million Australians employed in small businesses across Australia. Small businesses create employment and pay tax at a rate not seen by any other sector in our business community. That is why it is so important for all of us in here to support small business, to support those people in this country who are simply having a go. They are putting their own money at risk. As we heard from the member for Barker, sometimes they do not get paid because the staff have to be paid first.

My electorate is known for its big business—the miners, the oil and gas companies. Those big businesses generate billions of dollars into our economy and we are all very grateful for that. But there are also 16,000 small businesses in my electorate of Durack. Those small businesses drive our regional economies, they drive regional employment and, by extension, they drive regional growth and development. Without small business, our regional economies would simply fall in a hole. We have seen that especially with the downturn of the construction of the various mining projects. The small businesses have really been the glue that has held many of our regional communities together.

You and I both know, Mr Deputy Speaker, that governments do not create jobs, but they do create opportunity, and that is indeed what the private sector does with our support—enterprising Australians who have a work ethic and a propensity for risk, who start their own business, who identify a gap in the market, who work day and night to get themselves ahead. I want to applaud all of those thousands of small businesses in Durack, people who get up every morning and then go to bed at night knowing that they are going to have to do it all over again the next day. These are the people who create opportunity, and they create jobs. Government merely creates the policy to support these people, and we should be backing small businesses every day.

That is why I and many other members on this side of the House are proud to support those people. I am proud to say that we come here with a policy agenda that aims to cut the red tape and cut the costs involved in investing in a small business. Sadly, we know that those opposite have shown a complete lack of interest in supporting these types of measures that will really support the engine room of Australia and some of the other policies this government is seeking to push through this parliament in order to secure jobs and secure growth in the future. Those members opposite have instead sought to fall back on the usual rank hypocrisy, as is their wont, and instead are criticising, as we have heard numerous times over the last couple of weeks, our government's corporate tax cut initiatives. And that is in spite of comments made by their leader, their Treasurer, their Assistant Treasurer and their Minister for Finance. These four are all on record as supporting a cut to company tax—and we will get back to that particular issue shortly.

We have heard from many of our small business contacts throughout the electorate that the extension of this depreciation initiative is one of the highlights of the federal budget. And why wouldn't it be? This is very easily one of the most popular small business incentives and encourages the almost 3.2 million small businesses in Australia to invest in themselves and create job opportunities for their fellow Australians. This government has a proven record of supporting the small business sector by building up the engine room of the economy. We can guarantee growth, we can guarantee investment, we can guarantee lifestyle and we can guarantee jobs if we back the small business sector.

But I am not sure that those opposite understand this simple concept. They seem to think that jobs simply fall from the sky. Well, maybe in the various jobs they have worked in that is what happens, but you and I both know that it takes hard work and it needs a good policy agenda to ensure that small business is supported so it can grow, so we can create the jobs of the future and make sure our grandchildren have a job. But those opposite seem to think our 25 consecutive years of growth is something that just happens by accident. But, put simply, if a business owner is given an incentive—and they are, in this legislation—to invest in their business, to receive a tax break, then they will. That investment allows them to expand, and hopefully that expansion will create a job or two. That can then be repeated across the 3.2 million small businesses in Australia.

This feeds into this government's holistic approach to job creation, wage growth and training. We have committed to cutting small business tax as well as the corporate tax rate to keep us economically competitive. Make no mistake: as global economies become more interconnected and capital flows across jurisdictions far more than it used to, we enter a new era of corporate competition. Australians are no longer competing for jobs against those who studied for the same degree as they did, perhaps at UWA or Curtin; they are competing with graduates from around the world. And for Australia as a nation it is no different. We need to be creating the perfect conditions for foreign investment, because to do so ensures that our young people have good jobs to move into once they finish their degree of choice. That means that a variety of measures, including a lower maximum income tax rate and a lower corporate tax rate, are of benefit to us.

We know that, by doing all of those things, we will get growth and we will create jobs. By and large, this is just a sensible approach to ensure the jobs are created. The hypocrisy, time and time again, displayed by those opposite on this issue is as breathtaking as anything that we have seen previously. The following is a direct quote from the Leader of the Opposition when he was Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation back in 2012:

Any student of Australian business and economic history since the mid-80s knows that part of Australia's success was derived through the reduction in the company tax rate.

Those words are direct from—we will not say the horse's mouth because that might sound unparliamentary. This is simply one of the arrows in this government's quiver that we are aiming to bring to bear on the issue of joblessness and slowing growth. But there are many other measures in the budget that we have just brought down recently which are going to lead to improvement in growth.

This government has introduced several programs that will address issues around unemployment and, by extension, address our rising welfare bill, our slowing growth and our rising debt. We are aware of these issues, as you are, Mr Deputy Speaker Irons, and we are, no doubt, putting our shoulder to the grind and developing some policy that is actually going to help. Rather than follow the example of those opposite and throw money at our welfare bill and, sadly, our ballooning debt, we are sticking to the simple concept that the best form of welfare anyone can have is a job. And I know that you know that only too well, Mr Deputy Speaker.

When someone gets a job there are a large amount of flow-on effects that come with it. We know that their health improves, resulting in less public spending on health. We know that these people are then able to afford rent and, maybe if they are lucky, afford to save for a deposit, together with the new—it is such a great initiative that I have forgotten the words! We have the assistant minister down here. It is relating to helping people get into their first home. I have forgotten the words!

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