Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

This instant asset tax write-off is inadequate. We've just heard the minister say how great it's going to be for small business, but it is not high enough—$20,000 is not high enough for small business. You cannot buy a vehicle; you can't do a whole lot of things. The previous instant asset tax write-off was $150,000, and they're bringing it down to 20 grand! What's that going to get businesses? Not a lot. It wouldn't cost the Albanese Labor government a lot of money to adopt our amendment and raise the write-off to a higher amount than $20,000. I say to the minister: go and see your boss, the Prime Minister, and raise it a little bit higher. It's not going to cost a lot of money at all. It's actually very modest.

You cannot buy a vehicle for 20 grand. A lot of companies need a vehicle, right? I know you mentioned a coffee machine, but, come on—20 grand is not going to get you much at all. The truth is that Labor are pretty well antibusiness, particularly small business. Small and family businesses—they don't care about them. When it comes to tax, industrial relations and energy, it's leaving small and family businesses behind. That is the absolute reality. Small business employs almost half of Australia's private sector workforce and represents over 97 per cent of all Australian businesses. The issue is that, since the Albanese Labor government came to power just 18 months ago, small businesses have all but been abandoned in Labor's draft national platform and are very much an afterthought in each budget: What can we throw in there? What bone can we give them?

Labor's national platform, 114 pages long, mentions small business just five times. Labor have consistently turned their back on this community. In total, Labor, including the member opposite, voted against tax relief for small and medium businesses 15 times in the last parliament. They voted against it and denied tax relief to millions of small and family businesses around Australia. Now the current Treasurer, Treasurer Chalmers said at the time that the small-business tax cuts that the coalition government was putting in to help small and family businesses were 'not worth the money' and that Labor was 'proud to oppose these tax cuts'. That's from the Treasurer. The reality is that the Treasurer of Australia was proud to oppose tax cuts that would have benefited hardworking small and family businesses. Why? It's because their friends in the union movement, who are the real government of Australia, don't like small and family business, because they can't unionise it. Even in this bill, we see a special deal for big super funds that the unions run that don't apply to small self-managed super funds and some of the other funds.

Under this Prime Minister and this Treasurer, small and family businesses are suffocating. The Small business matters report shows that 43 per cent of small and family businesses are making zero profit—the worst rate since the last time Labor was in government back in 2012—and about 75 per cent of small-business owners earn less than the average Australian wage, despite working longer hours.

When people run a small business, you want them to earn a wage just like PAYG employees and just like we do in the parliament. You want them to earn a wage, but you also want that small and family business to make a profit after all their expenses, after their rent, after the wages for their staff, after their superannuation, after they buy their goods, after their insurances, after their electricity that's going up under the Albanese government—the list goes on and on and on. You want them to make a profit so that the profit can (1) be reinvested and (2) provide a dividend.

On this side of the House, we will look after small and family businesses, because many of us on this side have experience in the private sector. We haven't just gone from uni to working for unions or straight into parliament like many of those opposite have. The coalition values reward for effort. We thank small and family businesses for employing Australians. While this bill has some measures that we can support, quite frankly it doesn't make up for Labor's broken promises and lack of support and bad attitude to small and family businesses as a whole.

This year we saw a huge tax blow that's going to see tradies and small businesses across Australia pay more, and I'm talking specifically about the instant asset tax write-off. The chief economist of Judo Bank, Mr Warren Hogan, said that 'you will see some parts in certain industries really struggle' under this government.

The Albanese government has slammed the brakes on the amount small businesses can claim in relation to the instant asset write-off, down, as I said before, from $150,000. In fact, during COVID, it was unlimited. Before COVID, it went up to 150 grand. They're bringing it all the way down to $20,000, and the minister, who just spoke, comes into this place and makes out that it is some sort of win for small businesses. No, it's not. It's not a win. Twenty thousand dollars is not high enough.

If I think about businesses in my own electorate—I was talking to Wayne Treloar from Ray White Aspley and Ray White Bridgeman Downs group, who in the last financial year, when they could claim up to $150,000, bought four cars for their rental property business. Each car was $22,000. Under this minister, they won't be able to write that off. It'll take them years to depreciate.

Photocopiers—do you know what a photocopier costs in a business now? Given inflation, particularly under this government, it costs 25 grand for a decent photocopier. You can't write that off under Labor's instant asset tax write-off. That's what that Ray White business bought in my electorate, and they were able to write it off under the coalition's reforms.

Designer Life is another local business. They're not operating now under the NESM scheme in my area of Somerset, but they are in other areas. When I was talking to them last year, when I was assistant minister in this space, they bought cars as well. They spent $30,000 to $32,000 on a car. You can't get a car for 20 grand, in case the minister hasn't worked that out. They had to buy computers in bulk order when they had 20 staff and everything. They spent $74,000 on their computer system. Under the coalition's system, that was written off straightaway. Premier Pet in Narangba is another business in my electorate. It is a pet supplier to pet shops all around Australia. They put in commercial air conditioning for their staff, and it cost $25,000. Once again, they could write it off. Then these guys come in here and get up and speak as though $20,000 is some sort of a win for small and family business. It's not.

The point that frustrates me is that they could adopt our amendment to raise it to $30,000. We're just talking $10,000 more. We're not asking for it to go back to $150,000, where it was under the former coalition government. We're asking for it to go up just $10,000. It would not cost the Treasurer much at all—very, very little—but it would have a big impact during this cost-of-living crisis that small and family business and people are experiencing under Labor. That would make a difference. For once do you think the minister might be able to think: 'You know what? We could raise it by just $10,000. That's not a bad idea.' It's not a bad idea, but, from her speech when she was in this chamber just a minute ago, it doesn't seem like she wants to listen. It just shows how out of touch the Labor government is with what's going on in Australia right now, not just in Australian families, who are doing it tough, but in hardworking small and family businesses throughout the country.

The shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, understands small business and family business, and he was shocked to see in last year's budget that the extension of the instant asset tax write-off was gone. It was just gone—wiped. Then they come back in here a few months later and say, 'We're giving them a win.' No, you're not. This is a big deal for small and family businesses. If this is the government's version of refining the tax system for small and family businesses, they should be deeply worried. Australians need a government that focuses on the economy first, not on distractions like the Canberra Voice, which not one state in the country voted yes to. The coalition's amendment restores the instant asset tax write-off to levels introduced in the 2019 budget. The amendments will mean that 26,500 businesses with an aggregated turnover of up to $50 million will be eligible for a higher instant asset write-off of up to $30,000, and that would benefit them. It also, as I said before, is a very, very modest cost. It will drive productivity at a time when we're seeing historic collapses under the Albanese Labor government, and it stands in stark contrast to the extra $188 billion that the Labor government are spending, which is putting extra pressure on inflation, which families know about through increased rent and housing costs.

I want to quickly touch on their superannuation tax changes as well. This bill doesn't make up for Labor's broken promises. We know that members opposite were elected to this House on the promise that there would be no changes to superannuation. It was broken within the first 18 months. They somehow want the Australian public to believe, 'We're legislating it now, but it doesn't kick in until the next election.' No. There will be no changes to super. That's what you looked down the barrel of the camera and said, Prime Minister. He also said there would be a $275 reduction in electricity costs. Guess what? They've gone up 18.2 per cent. The minister comes in here and says, 'We're going to give small business a little bit of a benefit to upgrade some of their electrical costs and to put in lower lighting or solar,' or whatever. That's great, but that's not what you promised before the last election. You promised households a $275 reduction.

There wouldn't be one member opposite who would get up in this place right now and say, 'We're going to achieve that $275 reduction.' For a little while they were saying it would happen 'by the next election' in May 2025. None of them believe that. It's gone up 18 per cent. Gas has gone up 28 per cent. People are coming into my office. They're feeling the cost of living, but the government has been focused on the Voice for 18 months. Then, all of a sudden, they're like, 'We're concentrating on the cost of living.' Meanwhile, everyone's rents have gone up. Their mortgages have gone up. Their electricity has gone up. Their groceries have gone up. The government are slashing instant-asset tax write-offs for small businesses. This is what you get under a Labor government that doesn't care about small and family businesses and are focused on themselves.

So it is disappointing, and it doesn't end there. They promised lower mortgages. Minister Conroy, when it comes to the defence industry, said, 'We want to see more Australian manufacturing in the defence industry.' We just had the biggest three-day show in Australia for the Navy in Sydney last week. He knew about it for a year and couldn't even be bothered to show up. This is the defence industry minister, who can't be bothered to show up to his own show and talk to people in relation to the defence industry. Minister Husic pretty much abandoned the space industry. You would know about that Deputy Speaker Andrews—you were a former minister there, where a lot was done.

The government's proposal has three flaws. It's a broken promise from before the election, where Prime Minister Albanese explicitly ruled out changes to super. It is an index, which affects young Australians like my children, who are 21, 19 and 17—and many of us have children that age and represent people. The reality is that this will bite them, because, by the time they retire at 67 and with the way inflation is at the moment, they're all going to be getting less in their super. They're going to be getting way less. Even the Treasurer and his own department have shown that a 20-year-old today earning an average wage over their lifetime will pay higher taxes under this scheme.

Finally, it is taxing unrealised capital gains, which means that retirees and superannuants will face tax bills on money they haven't even earned yet. People invest in super; they might have a self-managed super fund. The price of their property has gone up, and they haven't sold it. Normally when you sell the asset, you pay tax on it—not under this government, under Albanese. What they want to do, under this Prime Minister, is make you pay tax on unrealised capital gains before you have even sold it.

It's a complete change to the way things are done. It would be like someone in this parliament or one of our constituents having a rental property—owning that rental property—and there being a 50 per cent capital gains discount so that, when you sell it, you pay tax on half the profit. Under this one, they'll just say: 'Your rental property has gone up during COVID. Give us $100,000 now, an unrealised capital gain.' I'm surprised that any member on the Labor side can get up with a straight face and say that this is good for Australians in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis that we've seen in generations.

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