Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Hansard source

We on the Labor side enthusiastically support tax breaks for small business. We enthusiastically support what's being proposed in this Treasury Laws Amendment (Lower Taxes for Small and Medium Businesses) Bill 2018, because it means that 99 per cent of Australian businesses will get the same amount of tax relief under either side of this parliament. But in the event that Labor is elected, under a Shorten Labor government they will also get access to the Australian Investment Guarantee. When the small business people of Australia go to the polls at some point in the next six to eight months, they will do so knowing that Labor has a superior offering on small business than that of the Liberal Party, the so-called friends of small business.

When the shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition announced that Labor intended to support this bill on Friday, I happened to be at a local small business in my electorate: Rose Patisserie run by Abbas and Fatima. I was there with the state minister for state development, my friend the member for Woodridge, Cameron Dick. When we visited Rose Patisserie, at the same time as we were announcing our position, we could tell Abbas and Fatima that we are enthusiastic supporters of small business. We do understand that small business has the potential to create a number of jobs, not just in my community but, indeed, in all of the communities around Australia. If they have the potential—if they are properly supported, not just by government but by local people buying from local small and medium-sized businesses—then they have the potential to transform communities and to make an amazing contribution to the community in which they work, and in which they operate and run their businesses.

This bill will bring forward the reduction of the company tax rate for companies with income of less than $50 million. The rate will be reduced from 27½ per cent to 26 per cent, and then to 25 per cent for the year 2021-22 and ongoing. This will benefit something like 3.3 million businesses employing 6.6 million Australians. It will cost $3.2 billion over the forward estimates, and the difference over the medium term is about $10 billion.

I do think it says it all about the sorry state of those opposite that, when we announced Labor's intention on Friday to support the legislation that the government is putting forward today—having announced our intention to vote for these bills—the Treasurer's first inclination, his first reaction, was to bag the Labor Party. I think that after two months of this Treasurer and this new Prime Minister they do have a lot of form; they are obsessed with Labor and obsessed with what Labor is doing. You would think that on this occasion, having indicated our support for the small business tax breaks they're proposing, they would take a break from their usual practice of bagging the Labor Party. But they are incapable of focusing on anything other than the political ploys of the day. In that respect, small business is in many ways an afterthought for those opposite. When you read the newspapers around those couple of days where this was being announced, on the Thursday and Friday of last week and into the weekend, there were all these anonymous sources from the Liberal Party saying that what this is all about is wedging the Labor Party. It's not about looking after those 3.3 million small and medium-sized businesses. This is about wedging the Labor Party. It's all about creating a difference between the parties to take to the election. It was really quite extraordinary that creating a political difference seemed to be the highest priority of those opposite.

We are not in that caper. When this was proposed on the Thursday—when the government substantially shifted their position on the Thursday—within 24 hours we indicated our support. We convened the relevant meetings, we had the relevant consultations and discussions in our show and, within 24 hours, the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Treasurer were able to stand up and say that we enthusiastically support what is being proposed here. I think the small-business people of Australia do understand as well. In addition to the political ploy that was attempted by those opposite, I think people in small business also understand that, if the Liberal Party had their way, this money, this $3.2 billion, would be flowing instead to big business in this country, to the big banks and the foreign multinationals.

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