Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the status of key budget measures? How will the government's plan promote growth and jobs across Australia?

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

I thank the hon. member for Fisher for that question—terrific question—because this is a government that is getting on with the job of strengthening the Australian economy and strengthening the government's own balance sheet to the benefit of all Australians. As the Prime Minister identified, in the last fortnight of parliamentary sittings, not only have we been able to improve the budget bottom line by $14.3 billion as a result of initiatives that have passed through the Senate; but we have also been able to deliver on structural reforms that help to strengthen the Australian economy. Those structural reforms range from helping people out who have fewer assets with a higher level of pension right through to just a few minutes ago reversing the bad decisions that were made by the previous government in relation to employee share schemes. So now small business can go out, have a go and give their employees a fair opportunity to participate in that wealth creation. Those sorts of results are helping to strengthen the Australian economy and they are vitally important over the next few months as we continue to build opportunity.

I say to the small businesses of Australia: there are only five days to go for you to go out and have a go this financial year, buy an asset up to $20,000 per item, invest that in your business and get a 100 per cent tax deduction on 1 July. It will continue for a further two years after that, but now is the time to go out and have a go.

Of course, the savings that we identified and continue to identify help to reduce the daily bill left by Labor from $133 million to $96 million. There is still much work to be done. We still have to find $96 million every day just to keep the government running. It was $133 million a day when we were elected. We have got it down to $96 million a day and we still have a long way to go.

But the $14.3 billion that we have managed to save in the last two weeks is hugely important. I broke it down, actually, to a per-minute number, because I was very mindful that the Leader of the Opposition, in his budget-in-reply speech, spent $220 million a minute! And all the work we have done over the last two weeks has saved $902,000 a minute. So it just goes to show you how dangerous the Leader of the Opposition is. He cannot be trusted by his colleagues and he cannot be trusted with the government's balance sheet because, ultimately, we are the only ones who are focused on prosperity and jobs for the Australian people.