Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I join those in this House urging all members to support an extension of the instant asset write-off. All around our country you see how difficult and tough it is to be in small business. You see vacant shops in many of our regional towns and cities. If you talk to small-business owners, they will tell you how difficult it is to survive at the moment. They'll talk about increasing costs—like power costs—which are an absolute killer for small business. They'll talk about the red tape which is strangling them. It seems to get worse every single day. Our small-business people need our support, and that is why we need to extend the instant asset write-off—to give them a badly needed boost in a very difficult time.

It's not just power prices but all types of issues, like supermarket price gouging, that are putting increased pressure on our small businesses. On the weekend, I was talking to one manufacturer in Orange who told me about the devastating impacts of supermarket price gouging on their business. These are pressures that our small-business people face every single day. Our small businesses are the engine room of the economy. They employ millions of people. They make up 97 per cent of all businesses in Australia. Our small-business people are innovators. They take risks. They are the ones who come up with the ideas and have the creativity, and they back their ideas. They often have to borrow money to do it. In borrowing that money, they often lie awake at night wondering if they are going to be paid so they can pay the bank or one of their other creditors. Our small-business people need our help. They need our support. Now is not the time to be playing politics with this.

I urge all members of this House to back the extension of the instant asset write-off to $30,000. It's the least we can do for our hardworking and valuable small-business people not only in country Australia but right around this nation. They need our help. They've made that cry for help very loud, and this House needs to answer the call. I again urge all members to back the extension of the instant asset write-off and to do it now.

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