Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Budgets are about choices, and this government had this choice: would they genuinely support small business, or would they use this budget to support unions, corporate mates, and vested interest? Unfortunately, we have the answer. Prime Minister Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the minister for industry are supporting vested interests and corporations.

I stand here today representing the 60,000 small businesses in the seat Cook. These people right now in our economy feel like they are being ignored. Because right now this government is governing for the squeaky wheel, the vested interests, the corporations with their lobbyists and their megaphones and the unions. The small businesses of Cook are the people being let down by this government. They're too busy employing people and paying tax to tune into question time or line up for the grants, the corporate welfare, from the Albanese government.

We just heard from the member for Cunningham about a company in her electorate receiving a subsidy as part of a private sector capital raise. Why is this government obsessed with picking winners and subsidising select companies? Hopefully this one was Australian—that's all I can say—but we've got a government picking winners, picking large corporations. The 60,000 small businesses in Cook would love the opportunity to get that $15 million that was gifted to one company that we just heard about. I would love to know more, and I'm sure the 60,000 small businesses in my electorate would love to know more.

This Future Made in Australia was said to be the centrepiece of the budget. It was claimed to support Australian industry and manufacturing, but the reality of this is very different. Labor's Future Made in Australia says it only really cuts red tape for foreign investors or big businesses with dedicated procurement channels. It does absolutely nothing for the growing small and medium businesses and those in my electorate of Cook.

Now, the Treasurer was out there trying to claim that this is tax reform—only to be corrected by the chairwoman of the Productivity Commission yesterday, saying it's tax policy. She also expressed concerns as to how they would wean corporate Australia off. What is the ramp off? They're already worried.

Now, to be fair to the Minister for Industry and Science, he's arguing for tax reform—he's asking for lower taxes. But then he was corrected, only the next day, by the Treasurer: 'No, we're not for lower taxes.' Right now, with the dysfunction in this government and the arguments they're having amongst themselves between the Treasurer and the minister for industry, this is a government at sixes and sevens. They'd do very well to look back to the Hawke and Keating governments to see what tax reform really looks like. Instead, your Treasurer and your industry minister cannot agree on tax policy.

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