Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Bill following the member for Kingsford Smith, who so graciously agrees with the government on this bill. I must admit that, at first blush, when we introduce a bill in the parliament and it increases a tax, I am sure many of us are concerned. The last thing we want to do on this side of the House is bring in legislation that increases taxes. But there is a very fundamental, important point that needs to be made on this. We need to ensure that every policy that we legislate in this nation at the very minimum gives Australian businesses a level playing field to compete.

We cannot have legislation that puts Australian businesses at a competitive disadvantage. That is what the current system does. If I am shopping for a good, and I look online or I look in a catalogue—it does not have to be online; it can be in a catalogue—and I can find an Australian retailer selling an equivalent good to what the foreign retailer is selling, at the moment we are forcing the Australian retailer to charge 10 per cent GST and remit that to the government, yet the foreign retailer does not have to pay a cent of GST. So our policies are currently putting Australian businesses at a competitive disadvantage. This is something that none of us can accept.

We need to try and give our businesses at least a competitive advantage. But, when there are things that make it difficult for Australian businesses, especially small Australian businesses, we have to take a stand. That is why our government and the minister sitting at the table, Minister McCormack, should be congratulated for his work on this, because many in the retail sector have been calling out for government to take action on this. We have seen how hard it is to earn a dollar in the Australian retail sector. We have seen many businesses in the retail sector close down over the last several years. So we just want to tell them: we want to give you the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, and that is what we are doing.

Although we have support from the Labor government on this, I would hope that they would support us in some other areas where we can give smaller Australian retailers a competitive level playing field. Of course, the first one we start with is the company tax rate. How can we expect Australian businesses to compete head-on directly against their foreign competitors if they are forced to pay a fee or a 28½ per cent company tax rate, yet their foreign competitor may only be paying 15 or 17 per cent? Again, it is putting our businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

But the most concerning thing about the competitive disadvantage that those on the other side of the chamber want to put on Australian businesses is the cost of energy. We have seen plans from the other side of the chamber that will simply force the cost of energy up even higher than it already is. Already we see small Australian businesses paying some of the highest electricity prices in the world. The Labor opposition says that that is not enough. They say they want to wipe out Australia's coal-fired power stations, drive them out of business—the lowest-cost producer—and bring in intermittent, unreliable, high-cost renewables to drive the price of electricity up and to put Australian businesses at an even greater competitive disadvantage than they already are.

On this side of the House, I for one am not going to stand by and see that happen. So with that, I commend this bill to the House. We must give our Australian businesses, at the very minimum, a level playing field to compete on against their international competitors. I commend this bill to the House.

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