Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The honourable member has thousands of businesses in his electorate, as does every member in this House, that are benefiting from the small- and medium-company tax cuts that we have already passed through the parliament. This morning the House passed the next phase of our plan for lower business taxes. But already firms with a turnover of up to $25 million a year are benefiting from a lower company tax, and on 1 July this year that'll be extended to businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million. Collectively, those businesses employ more than half of the Australian workforce, and the majority are of the private sector workforce.

We want all businesses to pay lower taxes on the income they earn, and we want them to do that so that they will invest more. Business tax is ultimately a tax on workers. They're the ones who pay for higher taxes through lower wage growth and fewer jobs. And we know the reverse is true: lower business taxes help to grow wages; they have a real, direct impact on Australian families. Backing Australian business, especially small and medium family-owned businesses, is backing Australian workers and ensuring that there are more jobs and better-paid jobs. We're seeing the evidence of that right now in the Australian economy: 403,000 jobs created last year, the most in our history. And overwhelmingly the drive, the impetus, for this job creation is coming from those small and medium companies that are benefiting from the tax cuts and other incentives that we provided.

We are hearing a chorus from the business sector reaffirming that they will respond to lower taxes with more investment and more employment, whether it is the small and medium family businesses that all of us know so well in our electorates, or should know, or the big end of town. Those are companies that are competing for capital globally. They've got global options, and they will respond by investing more in Australia when Australia is more competitive.

The Labor Party know this is right. This is what they said in the 2010 budget, and I quoted it yesterday—it's what the Leader of the Opposition used to say a few years ago; it's what Paul Keating has said and done. Everyone recognises that for Australian business to be competitive there must be a competitive tax regime for business in Australia. We're seeking to set that up, and the result that we're already seeing in the small and medium sector is more investment, more jobs and better jobs. (Time expired)

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