John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In looking back over the past 15 months, Australians have weathered a storm on multiple fronts. The first global pandemic in a century plunged our economy into recession, and the outlook was certainly grim. Some of Bennelong's 23,000 businesses even had to shut up shop, and the typical bustle of people came to a halt as we did our best to stop the spread. In looking back now, Australia's recovery has been remarkable, with countries around the world watching in awe as we bounced back from recession and returned, more or less, to normality.

It was just last week that unemployment had fallen to 5.1 per cent, the same figure as reported in February last year. Economic growth has rebounded, and Australia is the only OECD country to have its GDP higher now than it was before the pandemic. As we bask in this astonishing recovery, it's a good time to reflect on how we got here. The Morrison government has remained committed to securing Australia's economic recovery since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid rollout of economic stimulus packages helped Australian families get by during the trying lockdown periods. Looking to the future, the 2021-22 budget has reinforced the government's sustained commitment to recovery, unveiling several important initiatives designed to foster economic growth and keep unemployment down.

This is a strong and generous budget, which will deliver an enormous amount to the people of Bennelong. One of the most important reforms of this year's budget is the enormous tax relief to be delivered across the board. The focus on supporting further job creation is revealed in the extension of the full temporary expensing and loss carry-back measures. These measures, initially announced in last year's October budget, have been extended for a further 12 months until June 2023. Temporary full expensing allows eligible businesses with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $5 billion to deduct the full cost of eligible depreciable assets. The temporary loss carry-back extension will allow eligible companies to carry back tax losses from the 2022-23 income year to offset previous tax profits as far back as the 2018-19 income year. It sounds dry, but this will be a huge shot in the arm—like the one I got on Friday—for local businesses. The initiatives together are expected to boost GDP by about $18 billion and create around 60,000 jobs by 2023. More than 23,000 businesses in Bennelong will now be able to write off the full value of any eligible assets they purchase. In addition around 9,800 local businesses can use the extended loss carry-back measures to keep their cash flows working smoothly.

For small businesses, the past 12 months have been extremely challenging. Our government has consistently recognised the importance of small businesses to the Australian economy. These new measures acknowledge the pressure they have faced and our commitment to ensuring that Australia's small businesses and medium-sized businesses can bounce back and return to strong growth over the next few years.

In addition to promoting the bottom line of local businesses, we're also promoting our enterprising inventors and innovators from Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and across the electorate. The patent box policy, which has been successfully introduced in 20 countries worldwide, will see the concessional tax rate for Australian developed and patented medical and biotech innovations effectively halved to 17 per cent. In May I had the pleasure of hosting the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, at Macquarie based Cochlear to showcase the incredible work they have been doing. Cochlear are the world's leaders in the technology and development of medical devices for the hearing impaired. Under the new patent box policy, companies like Cochlear will be encouraged to undertake even more research and development, creating local jobs and helping to secure Australia's economic recovery. Bennelong's Macquarie University is committed to fostering research and development into new and important ideas, processes and products. We hope to see the new policy encouraging local students to develop their medical and biotech innovations and bring them to the market.

I've said many times that Bennelong is the capital of innovation in Australia. Policies like this patent box will ensure that companies can continue to be at the cutting edge of research and monetise their discoveries. The future is bright for Australian innovators, and I congratulate the government for its work and its support of our local businesses at all levels.

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