David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The economy is strong and it is getting stronger and stronger every day, with some tremendously good economic figures in recent months. Over the past 12 months, 371,500 Australians got a job, the greatest incremental number of jobs since before the financial crisis, a fantastic rate of growth. And the overwhelming majority of those jobs were full-time. There have been 825,000 jobs created since we came into government, two-thirds of those in the last two years, so it is a very strong economic performance.

We contrast that with the bleak and depressing economic vision of those opposite. The opposition leader said in a speech recently that the wealth of your parents is becoming the defining feature and source of your future and that there is a sense that your success in life is predetermined by your parents' income. That is not right, because, in Australia, we know that it is our own efforts that determine our level of success. We know that this is a country where people can come from any walk of life, from any background, and, through dedication and application, can make so much of themselves. That is so fundamental as to who we are on this side of the House and, indeed, who we are as Australians. But those opposite believe in a sad and depressing vision that your success or destiny in life is predetermined by your upbringing, and that is absolutely false. I'm sure there are many people in this House who know from personal experience that that could not be further from the truth, but this is an opposition that is anti-business, anti-aspiration and, frankly, anti-success.

What do those opposite want to do to small- and medium-sized businesses? They want to say you can't have any tax relief, because a business with $2 million of revenue or more is some sort of evil multinational that must be denied tax relief, even though most of these businesses are very small and are massive employers of millions of Australians. This could be instructive for those opposite. If you've got $2.1 million of revenue, it doesn't mean that you have made $2.1 million. It doesn't mean that your profit is $2.1 million. It means that you have revenue of $2.1 million and you might have a profit margin of five per cent. Many small businesses have profit margins of three or four or five per cent. So if your profit margin is five per cent and your revenue is just over $2 million, you're making $100,000. You are making about the same as the average family income, and those opposite say this is some sort of huge corporation that must be denied tax relief. That is an extraordinary and absurd proposition, and it just shows a complete lack of understanding from those opposite of how the economy works.

The other thing those opposite want to do is increase the investment tax on everything by 50 per cent. They want to increase capital gains tax on everything by 50 per cent. This is under their so-called housing affordability policy, but Labor's housing affordability policy says that on any investment in anything at all, if there's a capital gain, that person should pay 50 per cent more tax. So, if you invest in a factory in the electorate of Petrie or in a cafe or whatever, there would be 50 per cent more tax. If you invest in a farm, there would be 50 per cent more tax when you sell that asset. That is, again, a ridiculous policy which will be anti-investment. That policy supposedly was designed to address housing affordability issues in Sydney and Melbourne, so why would you apply it to all of these other industries and to the entire country? One reason is that you want to raise more revenue, because you want to spend more and you have absolutely no understanding of how the economy works. It is an extraordinarily bad idea.

We have very strong business conditions at the moment and very strong business confidence, and that's because this Treasurer and this government are unashamedly pro-investment and pro-growth. We have already legislated, with the support of some sensible crossbenchers in the Senate—not those opposite but some sensible crossbenchers in the Senate—for tax relief for businesses with revenue of up to $50 million. That should be extended further, because it will mean more jobs. The proof of the pudding is the very strong performance on jobs that this government has generated in recent years. We have a very strong economic record here. The economy is getting stronger every day. There is a depressing antibusiness, anti-aspiration agenda opposite which must be rejected.

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