Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House the importance to jobs and growth of a strong and successful small-business sector in Australia? What incentives is the government providing to encourage small family businesses, the backbone of our economy, to invest and employ?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Every component of our national economic plan is directed at creating more and better jobs and boosting growth.

Tax reform plays a critical part in this plan. Our budget is backing in small business with incentives to grow, invest and employ.

Over three million small businesses in Australia, often small family enterprises, are integral to the fabric of our economy and our society. We need them to grow; we need them to thrive. They are the engine room of the economy. They play an integral role in every community across the nation—from shopping strip retailers to the family farm, from tradies and motor mechanics to hairdressers and small professional practices, from food and hospitality to tourism operators and IT consultants. Their energy, their optimism, their entrepreneurship, their readiness to mortgage their home and borrow money to set up a business and to have a go—that is what drives jobs and growth and investment.

They are agile and flexible and they are able to make decisions to hire and invest at a rapid pace, which helps our economy transition from the mining construction boom to the 21st century economy. Our budget outlines a plan to reduce taxes for 870,000 businesses employing 3.4 million Australians. Under our 10-year enterprise tax plan, from 1 July this year the small business tax rate will be lowered to 27½ per cent. This will directly benefit 60,000 businesses that employee 1½ million Australians. The unincorporated small business tax discount will fall from five per cent to eight per cent. The small business entity turnover threshold will be increased from $2 million to $10 million—that will directly benefit between 90,000 and 100,000 businesses.

Those tax cuts build on our economic plan for small business, including the free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China; saving of tens of thousands of mum and dad businesses by abolishing the tribunals set up by Labor to force them out of the trucking industry; improving our competition laws to give small business a fair go against larger firms; establishing unfair contract term protection for small business; and establishing the small business ombudsman. Our small business entrepreneurs have a vital role to play in our successful transition to a vibrant, dynamic, innovative, 21st century economy. If our opponents say no to a tax cut for a small business with a turnover above $2 million and below $10 million they are saying no to a tax cut for 98,040 small businesses, who employ 2.17 million Australians.