Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that the last two budgets demonstrate the Government's achievements in supporting small businesses;

(2) notes that the Government has delivered:

(a) a Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan to reduce the tax rate to 27.5 per cent, commencing on 1 July 2016, with the tax rate to progressively reduce to 25 per cent by 1 July 2026, noting that the lower rate will apply to businesses with annual turnover of less than $10 million from 1 July 2016;

(b) an immediate tax deduction for small businesses when purchasing assets up to $20,000;

(c) a more than $4.8 billion reduction in red tape and compliance costs for business;

(d) simplified business activity statement reporting requirements to reduce compliance costs for small business;

(e) improved access to digital services for small businesses through the rollout and pilot of the Single Touch Payroll system; and

(f) an extension of the unfair contract term provisions to create a level playing field for small businesses when entering standard form contracts;

(3) acknowledges the Government's efforts to boost innovation, open markets and grow businesses through:

(a) delivering the $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda, which includes key measures to promote a dynamic culture of entrepreneurship, changes to insolvency reform and access to finance;

(b) signing new trade agreements with Korea, Japan, China and Singapore and committing resources to help small and medium businesses access new export opportunities;

(c) creating an advocate for small business with the appointment of the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman in March 2016;

(d) strengthening our competition laws to protect small businesses against anticompetitive

behaviour and the misuse of market power;

(e) helping small businesses gain greater access to finance through innovative solutions and diverse funding options with the release of the Fintech statement; and

(f) making it easier for small businesses to access Commonwealth procurement opportunities; and

(4) encourages the Government to continue to pursue cutting red tape and compliance costs while implementing a rigorous policy agenda which supports Australian small businesses.

Small business was at the centre of the government's last budget and the one before that because small business is the engine room, the backbone, the hardworking base of our economy. Small business drives much of the innovation, the job creation, the productivity and the entrepreneurship that we need to generate the opportunities our country so critically needs right now.

In my electorate of Brisbane, there are about 30,000 small businesses employing local people and providing so many of the local opportunities. Nationally, small businesses are collectively the biggest source of jobs and opportunities right across Australia, and all of the actions being taken by this government—some of which I listed in this motion—are targeted at the important prospect of every small business across Australia potentially employing one extra Australian, which would solve unemployment and underemployment for our youth, for our mature-age job seekers, for the Indigenous and for the disabled who want and deserve the dignity of work.

In addition to recognising how the last two budgets demonstrate this government's support for small business, I want to mention our ongoing focus on cutting waste and the task of budget repair following those years of Labor mismanagement. Those priorities are critical to the question of business and household confidence because confidence is so directly relevant to the prospects of so many small businesses, retailers and service providers alike who rely on discretionary spending by their customers. Equally important, for similar reasons actually, is the government's innovation agenda. The $1.1 billion of initiatives is incredibly significant and the regulatory changes to make it easier to fund start-ups and commercialise ideas are excellent, but even those benefits are outweighed, I feel, by the fact that the government's focus has lifted the topic of innovation into the national conversation, making many Australians right across the country think again about the little business idea they have had hanging around in the back of their minds and really driving entrepreneurship.

I spoke at some length last week about another key plank of our support for small businesses—our enterprise tax plan to reduce company tax rates. I look forward to speaking, hopefully later this week, about closing down the growing loophole of the GST low-value threshold, which has been acting like a reverse tariff wall, disadvantaging local retail businesses to the benefit of their offshore competitors. These measures are about improving our international competitiveness, a problem which is not going to go away; it is only going to get worse over time if we do not act. The reduction in our marginal company tax rate, despite the rhetoric sometimes of others in this House, is targeted for many of its first years predominantly and solely at small business. If we continue along the path towards being less internationally competitive when most other equivalent economies around the world are heading in the other direction, small businesses and innovation and jobs will inevitably go overseas.

In March last year, the coalition created an independent advocate for small business with the appointment of Kate Carnell as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. This is already paying dividends for the small business community. We have seen her recently release her recommendations on the payment times and practices inquiry. Coming from a small business background myself, I know how cash is king, and these recommendations should help small businesses improve their cash flow. The small business ombudsman has also made some significant contributions in the area of small business lending by the banks. I want to mention in passing the government's hearings into the practices of the big four banks here in Australia as one of the MPs who gets to sit on the House economics committee which holds the big four bank CEOs to account. I have made it a particular focus of mine to ask about competition in the banking sector and banks' lending practices to small businesses. I am of and I am from small business. The list of government achievements and priorities in this motion is as extensive as it is because of the Liberal-National Party being the ones with the experience, the real-world experience in small business. We better understand the opportunities and the challenges faced by small businesses today. We are committed to the success of small businesses right across Australia. We are doing so much to allow them to grow, to innovate, to trade, to compete and, as I said, to create the jobs and the opportunities that this country so desperately and critically needs. I commend this motion to the House.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to say a few words about the important topic of small business and the role that small businesses play in our economy. If you read through the list that is there in the motion, the problem is that most of those policies mentioned in the motion are not going to do anything about the fundamental problems facing small business in our community and in our country. What we see is a repetition of a list of policies which can best be described as trickle-down economics, the centrepiece of which is a $50 billion unfunded corporate tax cut, which will do very little for small business in our community. It certainly will not be a generator of demand which will propel small business forward in our community, and it certainly will not be assisting them to create the jobs of the future. Twelve thousand or so small businesses in our community know, in their bones, that the most fundamental factor affecting their prosperity is the level of demand in the economy, and you would say at the moment that demand in our economy is anaemic. It is not terribly weak but it is not terribly strong either. Small business depends, critically, on the strength of demand in the economy and, most particularly, on the strength of the labour market. So, if we want to do something for small business in our community, let's go right down to what we can do to boost demand and strengthen the labour market so consumption can then be strengthened to boost small business. It is a virtuous cycle.

There is a myth peddled by those on that side of the House that somehow the problem in Australia is that businesses are cash-strapped because of excessive taxes and onerous regulations, wages are always too high and therefore we are not seeing the investment that we need to enhance productivity and drive job creation. Well, the very last thing a $50 billion corporate tax cut is going to do in this community is to boost employment in small business. This was recognised only last week by David Gonski, the prominent Australian company director, who simply pointed out that tax cuts, particularly to the top end of town—where most of them leak overseas—are not going to be the elixir for economic growth, most particularly for small businesses in our community.

Small business do it tough. They do need sensible tax policy from governments. And they got it from the last Labor government. They got the instant asset write-off, which was a huge boost for small business in our community—abolished when the Abbot government came to power and, fortunately, brought back after they realised the stupidity of what they had done. But they also knocked off some other policies that we put in place at that time to boost small business. One in particular was loss carry-back, which ought to be brought back by this government if it has a genuine concern for small business. But the fact is, what small businesses need, above all, is strong demand for their products, and what we are confronting in Australia at the moment is the twin evils of weak aggregate demand and a squeeze on low- and middle-income households. In Australia, labour's share of the national income is actually falling. This means that middle-income households are missing out on a growing share of our income growth, and they are being squeezed in their capacity to purchase services and to drive demand. Slow growth in incomes of low- and middle-income earners is the major impediment to small business in our community. Yes, they will benefit from a small-business tax cut—and good—but it will not provide the customers they need to drive their businesses forward.

As a policy option, we need to reverse this squeeze on middle incomes, and one way to do this is to boost public investment. Public investment is attractive as it not only boosts demand but it also deals with supply-side constraints in the economy and offers productivity gains. Only if we solve the problem of a lack of investment can we fix the lack of demand, so this is urgent. I certainly hope in this budget we see some action from the government to boost total demand, to boost public investment, to strengthen the labour market and to add to the consumption capacity of low- and middle-income earners in our community. But above all we need to boost public investment with the aim of lowering unemployment, which will produce a much stronger labour market.

Wage stagnation, or wage deflation, is one of the most damaging problems facing small business in our community, but the crew opposite do not understand that. They come in here and into the House day after day, giving us a prescription for lower wages. We hear them in here today claiming that, somehow, a cut in penalty rates is going to be good for employment growth. It is going to be damaging for employment growth, damaging for consumption and damaging in many of those areas—which we have spoken about before—that rely on the wages and income of the workers who are working on Sundays to boost demand and drive businesses in those communities. It is simply self-defeating.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to support the motion by the member for Brisbane on supporting small business. I congratulate the member for Brisbane for bringing this important motion to the House. As the member for Brisbane put it, our last two budgets have clearly demonstrated our commitment to and achievement in helping Australian small business grow and prosper. As we see small business as the engine room of our economy, it is important to recognise that it is the coalition government that is seeking to identify opportunities, recognise the importance of small business and support it to grow and prosper. We know that, by backing small businesses to succeed, it will help our economy grow and create more jobs. That is the rationale for the 10-year enterprise tax plan. It is designed so that, in its initial stages of implementation, it focuses on assisting the small business sector. It is vital that we give Australian small business every opportunity to invest, innovate, grow and employ Australians.

As the member for Brisbane touched on, if only a fraction of the small businesses in our economy employed one more person, the change to the unemployment rate would be a very significant reduction. We need a tax system that supports the enterprise of these hardworking mums and dads who own these small businesses in our community, because we want them to invest. We want them to grow their businesses. As somebody who was a businessperson prior to coming into politics, I recognise the importance of how businesses can grow with the assistance of capital and building the right staff and right team around you as you invest and grow.

We want to ensure that Australia continues to be an attractive place to do business. We do not want to lose the opportunities, talents and skills we have in this country overseas. We want our businesses to grow and develop so they can employ that skill, talent and capability here in Australia. As part of that, it is important that we manage the process of moving to a more diversified economy. As I said last week about the amendments to the Singapore free trade agreement, we are seeing increasingly that it is not manufactured goods export, as it was historically. It is now about professional services—education, accounting, legal services. The skills and abilities we have in Australia are being increasingly recognised overseas.

These changes we are looking to make to the tax system—and, by extension, regulation and other measures that we have had in the past couple of budgets—are so important, because they create that framework and incentive for small business here in Australia to grow, develop and expand their horizons overseas. I see that with many of the small businesses in my electorate of Forde: their willingness to take on opportunities overseas that allow them to grow the business here and employ more people locally. Where those businesses have in the past gone to China to manufacture, interestingly, they are now increasingly repatriating those manufacturing capabilities to Australia. In part, it is to protect their intellectual property, because they are finding manufacturing overseas can put at risk the integrity of their intellectual property rights in the manufacturing process. As we see that change, over time, we want to create as a government the opportunity for those businesses and the incentive for those businesses to come back here to Australia, because it is through that process that they are creating jobs in our local economy.

That is where, in this debate about global taxation, as other countries lower tax rates we have to ensure as a country that we are competitive in a global marketplace. As the member for Brisbane and others on this side of politics will recognise who have been in business, it is a global marketplace we are now competing in. So it is through the measures of this government that we are looking to create that framework, that opportunity, for our business sector to grow, prosper and employ more and more Australians.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for moving this motion on supporting small businesses, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about something I care a great deal about, which is small business. I hear a lot, in this House, small business being talked about as the backbone and the engine room and the job creator and, of course, it is. But I do not want to talk about what small business does today I want to talk about why—why it is valuable, beyond the jobs and beyond the strict interpretation of economy as jobs and growth.

There was some wonderful research done in the US, recently, that looked at the longevity of a person when their long-term partner dies: they have been married for 50 years and then their partner dies. How long does that person live? What this research found was very interesting. It showed that there was a direct correlation between the longevity of the surviving partner and the vibrancy of the street life in the community in which they lived—in other words, the stronger the small-business community that provided those networks, the longer the person lived.

The reason for that is quite simple. When that surviving partner walked down the street and saw the fruiterer they had known for 20 years and the restaurant where they had got engaged, and all the small businesses that were there, and their history was there, people saw them as the surviving member of a partnership. Someone saw them, so their partner was still with them walking in that environment. When you walk down a street where you know no one, you do not take your history and your life with you. Street life is an incredibly important social element in the world of people, and that is what we are. We are a community of people.

In many ways, it is the by-product of the small business. The small business is the bath but the baby is that mirror you get, that sense of place when you recognise people you have relationships with—the safety net that the butcher who has been there for 40 years plays when they notice that old Mrs Jones down the road is looking a bit unkempt and hasn't been in for her meat this week. The relationships that provide the safety nets for our community are the things that really matter, and that is why small business matters. Not any small business—when we lose one small business and replace it with another, that is not the same, because we lose the baby, we lose the relationships. We lose the relationships with suppliers and we lose the flow of money through our local economy as well when we lose a business and replace it with another.

I would like to see us have a debate about what causes this country to lose completely viable businesses that are viable in their own right but some external factors cause them to go. If you listen carefully to the small-business advocates around the country you hear that. You hear the unlevel playing field, the effect of the cash economy, the underpayment of workers on legitimate business, that unfair competition and reduced spending capacity of their customers who work for these businesses as well. It is also the phoenixing, late payments, unequal bargaining with big companies, access to finance, access to justice if you want to defend your business against unfair behaviour, unfair tenancy agreements and unequal bargaining positions on those, councils that do not seem to consider the needs of existing businesses when they rezone and, effectively, price the local business out of that market. When you rezone it is not just homebuyers that are affected, you also affect the rental and capacity of small businesses to stay in the communities in which they built those relationships. You lose the business and you lose the baby that that business provides.

When we live in 90-minutes cities, as we do—not 30-minutes cities but 90-minute cities when you are out west—people leave home early. They do not buy the coffee at the local cafe, they do not come home and have dinner in the local restaurant. So not only do they not support the local business but also they do not build that sense of relationship and cohesion that is one of the great benefits of having strong local businesses. Research shows across the board that active relationships actually support our community in many, many ways. You can see arguments by small business that big business avoids tax but small business does not have the same opportunity to do so. Arguably, neither should. The cuts to family payments, the cuts to penalty rates and the reduction in payments for people at the lower end of the spectrum reduce the spending capacity of their customers. The appalling stuff-up of the NBN affects business all over the country and their ability to do their work. There is the scrapping of the loss carry-back. There is a lack of any action by this government to stimulate demand and work towards the building of community so that we strengthen that multiplier. We have a lot to talk about. (Time expired)

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Up until the last 30 seconds of the speech by the member for Parramatta just then, I was enjoying it immensely. I actually entirely agree with her about the importance of small business in terms of local identity, relationships and the role played just walking down the street—when one small-business owner might meet another and when people who shop in one shop know those who shop in another. Indeed, it is the social capital that gets created by small businesses that is often overlooked in this debate. I am glad that the member made reference to it, because it is critical. Particularly when you go to regional and rural areas of Australia, you recognise the role played by small businesses in ensuring that the fabric of the community is strong. Nobody invests more in their local communities than small businesses. Therefore, I could not agree more wholeheartedly.

I was disappointed, however, in the member for Lilley's address today that tried to suggest, yet again, that the solution for the woes in Australia, with the current economy—and, indeed, small business—is higher tax and higher spending. Having experienced the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era firsthand, how much time does he need to understand that you cannot tax your way to prosperity and that you cannot spend your way to fiscal responsibility? Indeed, that is where Labor has gone so wrong over the years. The one thing that the member for Lilley called for was a stronger labour market. Well, there is one thing you can do to ensure a better labour market in this country, and that is to make it a bigger labour market, by ensuring that we are attracting the right investments and encouraging the right growth so that businesses—in particular, small businesses, which represent around 97 per cent of businesses across this country—are able to employ more people. That is why you see the entire economic agenda of this government driven towards attracting more investment, unleashing more growth and improving the participation rate, particularly for women.

The member for Lilley also mentioned the importance of addressing the squeeze on low- and middle-income families. Indeed, this is key, and it is why the government is working so hard to ensure that we can bring some energy security to Australia. The Labor state governments have done a woeful job at that, with their inflated and unrealistic renewable energy targets, which are only forcing up and putting the squeeze on low- and medium-income families in particular. That is also why, last week, we had such a good win around child care, to make sure that child care is more affordable for those families most in need. The last point mentioned by the member for Lilley was the importance of boosting public investment; however, it cannot be done the Labor way. It has to be done where we are investing in productive infrastructure. The $50 billion plan of the coalition government aims to achieve just that end.

I think we all know that small businesses do face some challenges across supply, demand and finance. On the supply side, unlike big corporations, they are more limited with their economies of scale. They have to deal with far higher fixed costs. Often, you have management who are also owners, which puts restrictive behaviour on supply. Demand is also key. Small businesses are far more susceptible to fluctuations in demand and fluctuations in levels of confidence, and they are less able to diversify their activities. On the finance side, they are more cash constrained. They find it harder to borrow money, and cash flow and capital are far more difficult.

This is the reason why I rise today to support the member for Brisbane in his motion, because it is the coalition government that is looking to reduce the tax rate to 25 per cent for small businesses and is looking for deductions for their asset purchases. It is the coalition government that is simplifying BAS reporting; that has the Innovation and Science Agenda; that has made new free trade agreements with Korea, China and Japan; that has appointed a small business ombudsman; that is introducing an effects test; that is making it easier to access procurement for Commonwealth work; that is changing country-of-origin labelling; and that is introducing a level playing field to ensure multinationals cannot avoid tax and GST on low-value goods. It is the coalition that stands up for small business.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion today, and today I will be focusing on paragraph (2)(a) of the motion moved by the member for Brisbane:

a Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan to reduce the tax rate to 27.5 per cent … with the tax rate to progressively reduce to 25 per cent by 1 July 2026 …

I note that the government is saying that this is already happening, when nothing is clearer than that this government is slowly, slowly walking away from its centrepiece. When the Treasurer was asked last week by the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer, 'Do you stand by your tax cut to big business, and will it be in the budget?' the government refused to answer it. It refused point blank to answer whether it stands by its central economic argument—I may say its one so-called silver bullet to deliver the jobs and the economic growth that our nation needs. There is nothing else on the table. There is nothing else being put forward except a large tax cut to multinational companies.

We heard from the member opposite that this is the way forward. Well, I know that in my own community the way forward is not to rip apart the social safety net. It is not, as the government likes to do, to talk about jobs but not invest in skills and training. In my own electorate, thousands upon thousands of young people have missed the chance for an apprenticeship on this government's watch.

But what are the government's priorities? Their priorities are, as we have heard in this motion today—and they want to be congratulated for it—to deliver a $50 billion tax cut to some of the largest multinational companies in the world, including $7 billion of tax cuts to the big banks. I will say that again: $7 billion worth of tax cuts to banks.

On top of this, I note that, when I did a mobile office on the weekend in the suburb of Brookwater, a number of residents raised the issue of the government's agenda and what they were doing, and a local couple summed it up very well when they said: 'Just once, we would like this government to be focused on us, not the top end of town. Just once, we'd like a discussion that is not about lifters and leaners and not about whether people should be entitled or dodging the pension or getting Centrelink robo-debt letters despite not owing a dollar to the government, victimising and demonising people who can least afford it.' Just once, they would like a conversation not about how we can let the top end of town off the hook and not about how we can do more for the trickle-down approach that this government is absolutely addicted to but about how we can make hardworking families get ahead. Time and time again, writ large, it is this government's agenda. It is not worried about the bottom end but about the top end.

They can say all they want, but out there in the public there is a reason why support for the government is crashing. The community is walking away from the government. In the member for Forde's electorate, there is a reason—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker—you got a massive swing against you at the last election: the community do not trust you. They do not believe in you and what you are doing. They want a government that puts them first, just like Bill Shorten and Labor will always put people first, just like the couple raised with me. They did not raise with me how the big banks needed a hand. They did not ask me about multinational companies needing a bit of an extra hand. They were worried about their take-home pay. A young worker told me they stand to lose $60 per week—

Mr Van Manen interjecting—

That is not a lot of money for the member for Forde. It does not make a lick of difference to him. But it makes a difference for that worker in my community who is going to suffer a $60 a week pay cut.

We also have data released today that shows the government's complicity in terms of delivering a pay cut will mean a $650 million hit to the budget if these penalty rates are scrapped. Not only is it bad for family budgets; it is bad for the economy. So let us not have any more lectures about debt and deficit from those opposite. Start talking about the people who need a hand. That is the people in my community and every other community across Australia.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Time and time again we hear of the need to cut red tape for small business. Thanks to the coalition government, action is catching up with the rhetoric. The government's efforts to support small business are being felt across the nation. Throughout Capricornia, small business has been suffering, with continued delays in new mining approvals and lack of support for major new infrastructure projects from the Queensland Labor state government. But, with the resilient spirit of Central Queensland, small business perseveres. Running a small business is tough in an ever-evolving economic landscape.

I think back to the days when my own parents ran Lucky Daniels Casket Agency in Rockhampton. It was hard enough then to make a decent income, so much so that on occasion I would have to step in and help out, and mum needed to work night shifts as a nurse. But, as hard as it was then, my parents did not have to navigate the complex system we simplistically label as 'red tape'. They did not have to worry about BAS statements. They did not need to worry about social media strategies and ensuring their business had an appropriate digital presence. They did not have to worry about competition from online suppliers and competition from major internationals. They did not have to worry how they were going to pay staff members double time and a half and still be able to feed their family at the end of the day. Running a small business today is just that—running. They run from union pillar to taxation post and back again, via digital trenches and gutters of compliance.

The steps the coalition government is taking have real and measurable outcomes. An immediate business tax deduction of $20,000 for purchasing assets can make a big difference. It is the difference that will enable them to buy the computer that will allow them to manage their online presence. It is the difference that will enable them to afford to open on a Sunday, in the hope of countering losses from 24/7 online competitors. The simplified business activity statement and single-touch payroll system will reduce compliance costs. In the real world of a small business, this is the difference that means a working mum will not have to stay up half the night to finish the BAS on time. Or it saves that little bit of time so that dad can get home in time to have dinner with the kids. It is making a difference.

We have heard a lot about innovation. The National Innovation and Science Agenda lets Australia get back to being creative in its approach to business. For my electorate in Capricornia it also means that young unemployed people with great ideas will now have access to mentoring and funding. They will not be expected to live out their days in dead-end jobs but will be rewarded for having the courage to follow their goals. In Capricornia, we are already seeing the response. The region has traditionally been seen as a region lacking in innovation and entrepreneurship. In the last year alone we have seen new start-up hubs and support through our industry forums and grants. We are seeing industry and education collaborate to drive innovation and agriculture research. We are seeing businesses interested in learning how to adapt to the 21st century through TEDx and Google forums.

Small business is the backbone of our economy. Most small businesses do not have a team of accountants, ongoing administration support or marketing departments; they do the work themselves and have to continually navigate an increasingly complex business world. Every new compliance requirement and government regulation means less time to focus on growing their business and employing more people. By continuing to reduce red tape, the coalition government is proving its commitment to the working class, making business easier for Australians, and will deliver more for everyday families than what union-driven compliance will ever achieve.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the motion put forward by the member for Brisbane. This motion, quite frankly, is nothing more than a push piece of self-indulgent nonsense trying to pump up the devastatingly flawed—and, if you listen to the newspapers, soon to be doomed—big business tax plan of this Liberal government. Following the member for Boothby's small business motion last week, which I also spoke on, I am disappointed that the member for Brisbane has decided to present this vacuous and ideological vision that seems to illustrate the government's misguided priorities when it comes to small business.

I have to say that at least the member for Boothby's motion last week had its foundations in reality—and it is very noble of me to support the member for Boothby's motion. It spoke about the importance of small business to local economies, it spoke about the importance of employment and the effects of a strong local small business sector, and it spoke about the flow-on effects of people shopping locally. And it asked the members of this House to promote that to their constituency, which I was more than proud and happy to do. In contrast, this motion serves absolutely zero purpose other than as a vain attempt to cling to a policy that already has one foot in the grave.

Moving past the self-serving tone of this motion, let me at least pretend that it makes an attempt to deal with the substantive issues facing small business owners and their employees. As I said last week, my electorate of Lindsay in Western Sydney is home to a very large number of small businesses—in fact, there are roughly 9,000 small businesses registered in my community, employing around 15,000 to 20,000 people. We are a community of hardworking and determined people, as I often say in this place, and I know our local small business owners demonstrate these traits in spades. And, while I think of our small business owners in Lindsay as being exceptional, we know the values of hard work and determination are spread throughout Australia's small business community.

We have 2.1 million small businesses across the country employing roughly five million Australians, so it is crucial that we support small businesses as much as we can. What we should not be doing is spending billions of taxpayer dollars subsidising big businesses that are making huge profits, under the guise of supporting small business. You do not help small business owners and employees by misappropriating billions of dollars of hard-earned money and giving it straight to the big four banks. The member for Sydney—and my great colleague—Tanya Plibersek, often says that, if you asked someone on the street if they would prefer to give $2,000 to a local school or to a bank, they would pick the school every time. That is something for this Liberal government to take away from this.

This motion is actually all about their failed, flawed $50 billion plan. Before those opposite start jumping up and down and shouting about how great their unfair tax company plan is, which I am sure they have been doing prior to my arrival, I am happy to remind the chamber that it is Labor's small business tax plan, not this government's, that will most assist Lindsay. The coalition's policy will also add $4 billion in interest debt to the budget with their plan. Our plan, though, correctly focuses on supporting small business—those with an annual turnover that is under $2 million. There are very few people in my electorate who would think a business with a turnover of $10 million per year should be getting a tax cut while they have their penalty rates slashed.

That is not all: this government are cutting pensions and family payments, and they are making 1.5 million families worse off under their childcare changes. They want to see young unemployed people suffer the indignity of having no support for four weeks and then, when they do start receiving financial support, the amount of money that they are able to receive will be cut.

I have been told time and time again in my electorate that the Liberals' business tax plan is woefully targeted, and everyone knows exactly what it is—a tax cut for the government's big business mates and/or donors at the expense of small business owners and those struggling to get by. Again, I reiterate: it will add $4 billion in debt to the extra interest charges. For a government that is continually obsessed with debt and deficit, I would say that is pretty astonishing.

We have now learned that the recent penalty rates decision this government has supported will also cost another $650 million to the budget through lowered tax revenue, because people will lose take-home pay and end up paying more in welfare spending. The whole situation reeks of unfairness. This is a government obsessed with looking after its big business mates at the expense of ordinary people.

Let's compare the government's plan with Labor's small business tax plan. Our plan, which will see the company tax rate reduced for all businesses with a turnover of less than $2 million, will benefit 9,626 businesses in my electorate out of a total of 10,313 registered businesses. That is 93 per cent of all businesses in Lindsay benefiting from Labor's tax plan. It shows that the government's big business tax plan, which will cost $50 billion and hand billions of dollars of taxpayers' money straight to the big four banks, is focused solely on wealthy business owners in the north and east of Sydney and not on us in the west. The reality is that the policy is unfair no matter how the government dresses it up and tries to sell it to the public. This government needs to take a leaf out of Bill Shorten's playbook and implement policies that put people first. (Time expired)

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise to speak to the motion from the member for Brisbane, particularly after his years of advocacy for small business, in particular in Queensland. As a former small-business owner, I understand that the government has forward a suite of measures that will create the environment for small business to prosper—to be the engine room of the nation that it is and to employ the people that it does, particularly in my electorate of Maranoa. The more than 32,000 small businesses in Maranoa will be the beneficiaries of the suite of measures that this coalition government has put in place. In fact, 25½ thousand of those businesses will take advantage of the first tax cuts that will come into place, which will be for small businesses with turnover of up to $10 million.

The previous speaker talked quite loosely about businesses with turnover of up to $10 million. She clearly does not understand what a small business is, which clearly demonstrates that she has never worked in a small business or owned one, never had to bother to actually pay a wage, and never had the responsibility of keeping the doors open and paying the rent. Unfortunately, that is what the previous speaker does not understand. It is quite disappointing and why those opposite do not understand what these tax cuts will do for an electorate like mine, with 25½ thousand small businesses. Small businesses are the engine rooms of small rural communities; they are the employers that keep our towns alive. That is an important piece of the motion that the member for Brisbane has put up, coupled with the instant asset write-offs that are getting small business investing in small business. That is the exciting piece of this: we are seeing small businesses in regional towns investing in other small businesses through these instant asset write-offs. It is a smart economic lever that we have pulled, understanding how business works and how capital flows. We understand that that is an important piece of the puzzle. We get small business.

We also understand that red tape gets in the road of small businesses doing their job of employing people and making our small communities—and our large communities—grow. We have reduced red tape by $4.8 billion, but we are not going to stop there. Senator James McGrath, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, was in my electorate recently and made it quite clear that he is about to start a new endeavour to further cut red tape. I commend Senator McGrath for doing that, because it is important that small business be given the environment to prosper, to create the jobs and create the wealth, whether that be in the cities or in regional and rural areas. We need to simplify the reporting requirements of our small businesses, understanding that they do not need to be burdened with red tape from bureaucracy that really have no value to those people or the nation.

The big kicker, particularly for my electorate of Maranoa, is the trade agreements that this government has achieved over the last four years with China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore. They mean that we are seeing real dollars flow into the electorate of Maranoa, effectively by flowing back into small businesses that support rural communities. Three years ago my primary producers were getting around $400 a head for a steer. Today they are getting about $1,200. That is an exponential increase in the incomes of people in regional and rural Australia, which flow back into the shops of Roma, Charleville, Longreach, Warwick and Kingaroy. It is creating in our economy the resilience that we need. These are important measures. A responsible government understands it cannot get involved in the daily lives of businesses or households. Our job in government is to put around our businesses the environment and infrastructure for them to grow, prosper, innovate and invest. It is about making sure they have the environment to take our small towns—and our big towns—to the next level.

We have also endeavoured to ensure things are fair. The appointment of an Australian small business ombudsman—and I was fortunate enough to meet Kate Carnell recently—is a huge step in putting in place a framework that protects small business against big multinational companies that take advantage of them and the great work they are doing not only in big cities but in regional areas. It is important that we put in place that framework of competition law to protect them.

Another important piece or work has been in Commonwealth procurement. Small businesses right around Australia, even in Maranoa, will be able to take advantage of Commonwealth government procurement opportunities if we can free our bureaucracy from the mindset that big is good. Small business can make a big impact on Commonwealth procurement. This will grow our small businesses, create greater wealth in our small communities and create more employment.

I congratulate the member for Brisbane on this outstanding motion.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:14