Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for not only his question but also his long-held faith and belief in the small and family businesses in his electorate, some 16,500 of which are already benefiting from the Prime Minister's and the Treasurer's enterprise tax plan. The member for Menzies knows that the small and family businesses in his electorate don't exist in a vacuum. The economy is full of businesses of all sizes. And in the most recent survey, when they surveyed small and family businesses, on a ratio of six to one, they have argued that tax cuts be extended to big businesses as well. Why? Because they benefit from it because they form part of their supply chains.

I mentioned the Treasurer, the finance minister and I visiting Qantas recently and talking about the 3,000 companies. And I noted that, when I did that, the member for Kingsford Smith took to Twitter and said, 'But they don't pay income tax.' No. He's obviously a fan of Alberici-nomics. They made a loss in company tax. They made a loss and they're carrying that forward, but what have they done in that period? They have taken some of that money, they've turned around, and they've invested it in their staffs' pockets. So far, since 2014, they have paid non-executive staff bonuses amounting to $220 million. Why? Because when you cut taxes—in this case, perfectly reasonably, because there was a turnaround off the back of large losses—businesses will then incentivise and bonus their staff. We are seeing it in the US across the board as we speak. That is the reality of how small and family businesses—in fact, businesses irrespective of size—conduct their operations.

What is the alternative approach? On the other side of the House, they believe that the Leader of the Opposition is the best person to tell small and family businesses in this country how much of their money they can keep. Why? Because he's the best-placed person to tell them how they should spend it. He has never run a family or a small business in his life, yet he wants to determine how much they have left in their pocket—their own profit. What do they do with their profits? They reinvest in themselves, they back themselves, they take on bank debt, they hire people and they put their home on the line every day. They head off, and they're the last to pay themselves when they do this. But 1.1 million small and family businesses that made not $1 in profit last year nevertheless paid $39.5 billion in salaries to their staff. The reality is the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and we on this side of the House have a plan. We are prepared to back small and family businesses. Those opposite aren't, and I'm happy to campaign against them.

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

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