Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the minister inform the House on how the government is promoting business start-ups? How will the budget encourage small businesses to grow and create jobs?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for that spontaneous question. The member for Barker grew up in a small business family. He represents more than 15,200 small businesses in his electorate. His mum owned a women's clothing store for 45 years in Mt Gambier and his father owned a farm. He himself and his family worked in their own small business. That is the story of the coalition: we are made up of people that have come from small business families, that have worked in small businesses, that have had a go to try to employ others and build prosperity and certainly contribute to innovation.

This budget was about helping small business to have a go. The Prime Minister and I and the member for Eden-Monaro and Senator Seselja went out to Harvey Norman in Fyshwick today. Harvey Norman, despite it being a big listed company, actually has a lot of franchisees running different departments. They are small business people in many ways. They came up to us saying that they are starting to see a lot of people come through the doors who want to buy that extra bit of equipment, that extra computer, that extra electronic product that is going to help to grow their business. They are seeing a great deal of consumer confidence start to come through, which means if you lift the tide with more prosperous small business, it flows right through the Australian economy, and that is exactly what our $5.5 billion Jobs and Small Business program was focused on—about lifting confidence, about lifting opportunity.

The member for Barker sent me a copy of a letter he received from Mena D'Agostino from Joe D'Agostino & Associates, chartered accountants in Mt Gambier. It says: 'Dear Tony'—it is not Tony's tradies; it is Tony Pasin from Barker—another Tony. They are all Tony's tradies! It says: 'I thought I would take this opportunity to thank you and the government for the small business package announced on budget night. We have received an unprecedented level of inquiry regarding that package, in particular requests for information regarding eligibility and operation of the package. This package has had the effect of increasing business confidence amongst our mostly small business client base. Given this level of inquiry, we feel certain that the instant asset write-off in particular will strengthen the local economy and boost jobs.' How good is that?—strengthen the local economy and boost jobs.

So here is a challenge for the Labor Party. This legislation is going to go through the House of Representatives this week—absolutely right. Then it goes to the Senate, which has only two weeks to sit. I lay down the challenge to the Labor Party: help us to get that legislation through the Senate as quickly as possible.