Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

There have been company tax cuts delivered that drive investment, profitability and employment. The member asked: what are we doing with our tax cuts? What are businesses doing with their tax cuts? My family, I would suggest, are doing what every business in this country is doing: reinvesting in their business, growing their business and employing more Australians. I will get to the results of it at the end. Thank you for asking.

You have free trade agreements. The Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources stood at the dispatch box today. There is a 39 per cent increase in the agricultural sector over the past five years. We have ChAFTA, the Japan-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the Korean free trade agreement and updating of the Singapore free trade agreement, and you have results like this: chilled and frozen beef exports were $670 million in calendar year 2016, up fourfold from 2012—300 per cent. Sheepmeat exports were $240 million in calendar year 2016, more than double—100 per cent above—those of four years ago. Grape exports were $102 million, a sixfold increase. These are the sorts of results we are having at the back end: businesses growing their profitability and yet again employing more people.

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