Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the shadow Treasurer, the Hon. Joe Hockey, for visiting Longman last week. Joe and I toured the electorate, visited several small businesses and held a community lunch with over 150 local small businesses. I would like to outline to the House some of the realities that are facing the locals in my community.

Across my electorate of Longman we have six per cent unemployment. In Caboolture, the largest population base in the electorate, we have 10 per cent unemployment. When you walk down the main street in Caboolture one in ten of the people you meet do not have a job. We have a local economy that is completely dependent on what we on this side of the House think of as the power house and the engine room of the economy—small business. We have a local economy that is dependent on tourism, retail and light industry. The greatest resources in my local community are the work ethic and the willingness of countless locals to get out there and have a go. These locals are willing to get out there and go into business, often in the face of adversity and a difficult economic climate, and to have a go, to say that they want to get ahead in life, to provide for their families and, importantly, to employ people.

The concern that was certainly raised when Joe visited, and that is raised with me every single day when I make my way around the electorate talking to small businesses and to these people who are getting out there and having a go, is that life is getting more difficult. Something that the Labor Party and the members opposite have forgotten—or, worse yet, attacked—is this notion of having a go. I challenge the members opposite—there are not a lot of members opposite, but I would certainly challenge any interjecting members—to go out into their communities, talk to these local small businesses and come back to this place and tell me when you have found one small business that says, 'What my business needs to thrive, to employ people, to prosper and to give back to the local economy is higher operating costs.' There is now deathly silence on the other side, but I can tell you, Mr Speaker, that with higher operating costs, greater regulation and a greater burden on the local small businesses in my community they will find it harder to do what they naturally do, and what they naturally do is to prosper and employ people. The natural setting of small business in this country is based on opportunity. I worry when we attack opportunity by making it harder for people to get out there and have a go.

I might share with the House a story from the shadow Treasurer's visit to my electorate. We went out and saw a local worker in a manufacturing firm in my electorate. He said: 'If I work overtime, all that ends up happening is that I get taxed more. I have to work harder to then try to pay back that greater tax burden, and there is no incentive for me to get out there and try to get ahead in life.' I stress that I cannot find one business that says, 'A tax makes my business thrive.'

I worry sometimes because the members opposite in the Labor Party have this belief that the government has the solution to everybody's problems. I can tell you, Mr Speaker, that the government is the problem. The fundamental truth that we seem to have forgotten in this nation is that, instead of looking to the government for the solutions to our problems, sometimes we should let the government get out of our way so that we can get on with our lives and thrive, prosper and do what we naturally do, which is employ people and provide for our local community. I think it is quite worrying that our country is going down this path where we attack hope, where we attack reward for hard work and where we attack the notion of a society based on opportunity. On this side of the House we understand that the essential ingredients for Australia to prosper once again are to have hope that tomorrow will be better than today, that we will have reward for hard work and that we will have equality of opportunity—that we will provide all Australians with an opportunity to get ahead in life.

In conclusion, I would like to say that on this side of the House, in order to deliver on those three essential ingredients we will deliver two promises: under a coalition government you will have less tax and you will have less government spending. The government will get out of the way so that you can get on and get ahead in life.