Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be disagreed to.

I table a statement of reasons. The Albanese government knows that small business is the lifeblood of our economy and our communities. They're the heart of local communities, the significant employer, employing millions of Australians. Small businesses are doing it tough. We know that. In part in acknowledgment of this fact, we introduced a number of measures to provide ongoing support to small business in last night's budget. They'll find their way through the parliament and we'll be debating that over the course of the week and the fortnights ahead.

Small businesses need certainty and they need to ensure that measures announced in the previous budget are legislated in a timely fashion so that they can make their decisions, including their business and investment decisions, accordingly. For this reason it was a kick in the guts for every Australian small business when the opposition blocked the passage of this bill in the Senate for no good reason, leaving small businesses up in the air without any certainty about whether they would get the requisite relief anticipated by the government's tax measures that were announced in last year's budget.

The bill should have been passed into law months ago. This would have given small business and their accountants and advisors the capacity to plan for the year ahead. While the coalition blocks this significant relief for small business, the government is moving forward. We have announced an extension of the scheme. We'll extend the instant asset write-off for yet another year, providing an additional $290 million for small businesses over the course of the year ahead. If those opposite vote against this bill in the form that was introduced in the House after the last budget, they'll be voting to block that support for small businesses at the very time that they need relief, including tax relief, and certainty around the investments that they have made and will make into the future.

So we call on all members of this House to support the measures as they were originally introduced and enable the government to get on and provide the support small business deserves and needs—and were led to believe they could rely upon.

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