Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to my good friend the Minister for Small Business.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You should get out more!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley is warned!

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will the minister update the House on what action the government is taking to build a stronger economy and to support small businesses in my electorate of Reid and throughout Australia?

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to get this question from my good friend the member for Reid. What a great job he is doing. There is no wonder Labor is upset. There he is in what is traditional Labor heartland representing with great skill more than 19,000 small businesses which at last have an ally and an advocate for their community.

Part of our job as the government is fixing the budget, getting the environmental conditions right for businesses large and small to thrive and prosper. We are implementing the economic action strategy and my friend the Minister for Industry has just outlined last week's crucial announcement, the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda. It sets out for bold ambitions for our country, ambitions that are all about job creation and higher standards for our nation. They are about lowering the cost of doing business here in a more business-friendly environment, getting rid of those pointless and overreaching regulations, lower taxes and more competitive markets. They are about a more skilled workforce, better attuned to economic opportunities and the needs of our enterprises. They are about better economic infrastructure, the arteries of enterprise that are so important to building our capacity, and an industry policy that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship.

As part of that agenda, some very important announcements for small business were made. There was a key one about the taxation treatment of employee share schemes. This is needed to encourage start-ups, to enable them to attract and retain the employees they need to make their idea a business success, to commercialise those ideas and to create jobs and opportunities for our country. Nobody thought Labor had it right when in 2009 they shifted the taxing point from employee share options, not from when they were there, material and able to be exercised but when they were issued, a tax liability activated at the opportunity that there might be some benefit down the track. We have committed to turning that around, to getting that taxing point right so that employers and employees who want to work closely together to build their businesses can do so knowing that when the benefits arrive, when the shares are converted and those options become real, then the taxing point takes off.

Another initiative, something Labor could never do, was to provide some specific support for start-ups. Eligible start-up businesses will have an additional opportunity where shares and options are issued at a discount and held for more than three years. When they become taxed, that discount will be exempted up to 15 per cent and the tax on those options will be deferred until they are sold. This is about dealing with the legacy we have inherited from Labor, arresting the decline which saw 519,000 jobs lost under Labor. We are about re-energising enterprise and another instalment from the work of the Abbott coalition government to support small business, growth and opportunity in our economy.