Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's important that I can stand and speak on this amendment, particularly after spending more than 15 years, prior to my time in this House, working in and with small businesses right across my community in the Yarra Valley, in Casey and also across Victoria and Australia. I've seen firsthand how important they are to the economy and to the community. It's not just the jobs they create or the economic growth that they create; anyone who has visited a sporting club in their community can look at all those signs on the side of the ground and I guarantee every sign there is a small business of that community. It's not a big business; it's a small business backing the community. That's why it's so important that we're doing everything we can to help small business.

But sometimes we can talk about these terms like 'instant asset write-off', and other terms, and forget the people behind what we are talking about. I want to quickly share a story about one small family business in my community, but it could be any business in my community, any business in any electorate across the country. It's a company called Mainstream Cabinets. Matt and Tayte Tilney started that business about five or six years ago—they may be coming up on a decade now. Time flies! Matt was working as a cabinetmaker and decided to go out on his own and start his own business, and years and years later he's employing many young people and apprentices and giving back to our community. But the reason the story of Mainstream Cabinets is important is they've previously directly benefitted from the instant asset write-off. I got to visit their factory and see the great work that they're doing. They were able to invest significant capital into a machine that automates all the cutting that they need to do to precut a lot of the work for the cabinetry. This is something that was previously done manually but can now be done automatically. It saves time, it saves money and it drives productivity in that business. Most importantly, what it has allowed the business to do is continue to grow and to employ more people because of the investment that they made. When I spoke to Matt about that investment, I said, 'Would it be possible without the instant asset write-off that was quite generous at the time because of the former government?' He said, 'It wouldn't have been.' Without the instant asset write-off, they couldn't have invested that money into their business. That's what we're talking about when we debate this legislation.

Small businesses aren't asking for a handout. They don't want welfare. They want the ability to run their businesses. When they make the decision to invest in their business, give them a little bit of support. Give them a little bit of support in how they manage their cash flow, their depreciation schedule and their tax schedule. It's only a little bit—$20,000 to $30,000. Let's be honest; small businesses are struggling in this country at the moment. This isn't going to make a huge difference, but it's going to help just a little bit. And when you've got everything else going against you, every little bit of help you can get is going to make a difference.

Let's understand the economic environment that we have in this country. It is as tough as it has ever been. I was speaking to a business owner just last week. Well respected, with 40 years in business, he's not one prone to hyperbole, and he said these are the toughest economic times that he has seen. Increasing costs of energy, increasing inputs, increasing wages—everything is going up and revenue is going down, and small businesses are struggling. It is a condemnation of this government that the best they can come up with is this legislation that is 12 months late, but better than nothing. It's very funny how they're quick to criticise those on this side of the House for not supporting them and not being proactive. We put forward an amendment that has been supported in the Senate, working constructively and proactively with the government to support small businesses. The test of this government is: are they going to take that hand and work with us to deliver for the community, or are they going to continue to ignore small businesses? It's a shame that, going by the words of this minister, they're going to continue to abandon small businesses. By abandoning small and family businesses, they are abandoning the communities of Casey, of regional Australia and of every community in this country. As I said when I started, it is the small businesses of our community that back the community when they need it the most.

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