Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've heard from the government and, indeed, the previous government speaker that this is an important thing to facilitate more investment. That's fair enough. I agree that it is a useful step. But, if we're talking about what else we could do—as this bill does contemplate—to improve Australia's funds management sector, then I'd encourage the government to pay some more attention to behind-the-border trade barriers instead of its obsession with just striking any trade deal it can find on the way through. Not every trade deal is a great trade deal. If you go out and have a chat to business, business keeps telling us that these kinds of things would do far more to see investment flow into the country.

I used to work in the economic development department in Victoria. I worked in investment and trade. I spent some time, before I left the Victorian government, actually having a look at the financial services sector strategy. That is sensible government policy. What a grown-up government would do is have a look at a sector that has great potential to do more for Australia and then actually craft a decent industry policy. I have no disagreement with building submarines or ships in Australia, but it does not substitute for an industry policy, as this government pretends.

I applaud the government on actually following through with a piece of legislation, five years later, to implement a good Labor government initiative. I applaud you. It's good and very sensible. But if you want to be taken seriously on all the other stuff you say about this bill, then you'd have a look and be real about the other factors that are far more important than the headline company tax rate, which just about no company actually pays in Australia, as you well know. There are things like the stability of our financial sector, things like our liveability, things like a positive investment climate and things like infrastructure. Those things are far more important—you know it and business knows it—for facilitating more investment.

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