David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has a pro-growth, pro-investment, pro-market outlook. We believe that anything is possible in Australia. We put in place policies that will enable Australians to pursue their dreams. But those opposite have an antibusiness, antisuccess, anti-aspiration agenda. They say that things are so unfair that people can't succeed unless they are born into a wealthy family—an absurd statement in a country as great as ours.

In a recent speech, the Leader of the Opposition said, 'The wealth of your parents is becoming the defining feature and source of your future.' He said there was a sense that, 'Your success in life is predetermined by your parents' income.' Now, that's a very depressing vision of this nation, and it's a completely inaccurate one. Of course some people start out with more advantages in life than others, but, overwhelmingly in this country, our success is driven by the intensity of our own efforts, and it is not in any way predetermined by who our parents are.

On this side of the House, we embrace policies that favour aspiration, investment and hard work, and those policies are working. We abolished capital gains tax for investments in start-up companies to help get more job-creating businesses off of the ground. We've seen a huge increase in investments in start-ups: $568 million raised in the last financial year, up several hundred per cent on a few years earlier. We've extended the instant asset write-off for small businesses, making it easier to buy that coffee machine, truck, set of tools or whatever it is to help your small business grow. We've enacted historic tax cuts for small- and medium-sized businesses, and they've now come into effect for businesses with a turnover between $2 million and $25 million. We've closed and implemented massive free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China.

This year, we've seen Australian agriculture exports grow by 19 per cent in value terms—a huge benefit to regional Australia, and so strongly driven by the benefits flowing from the China free trade agreement closed by this government. We see the economy performing well. We had GDP growth of 0.8 per cent in the last quarter—a strong result. Business investment in machinery and equipment was up more than three per cent in the quarter. Investment across government is up 5.7 per cent as well. The strongest growth in full-time employment in the last 40 years has been seen in the last six months. We've got strong momentum in the economy and we have very high levels of business confidence. You need business confidence to make investment happen, and you need investment to happen to create jobs and income, because you can't get a job in a business that is not growing.

These successes are the result of policies that are unashamedly pro-growth, pro-investment and pro-business. But what do we know about those opposite? We know that they want to deny tax cuts for a business with just over $2 million of turnover—it might have a five per cent profit margin, making $100,000 profit, which is about the same as the average family income in Australia. They say that's some sort of evil multinational corporation that must be denied tax relief—an absurd position. They also want to put a new tax on housing by abolishing the century-old principle of negative gearing, which is really just that you can claim costs on investments—that's all it is. They say it should be gotten rid of. It's been around for 100 years. In order to address housing affordability, they want to increase capital gains tax by 50 per cent on everything—50 per cent on a farm or an investment in a factory or a cafe to address issues to do with housing affordability. Of course, a factory based in Broome does not have anything to do with housing affordability in Sydney or Melbourne. But, if you invest in a factory in Broome, you're going to pay 50 per cent more tax under the alternative government. They want people who earn $180,000 a year to pay $1 in every $2 they earn to them if they were in government. That's what they want.

It is a bleak and depressing view that they have, as outlined in the opposition leader's statement—that is, that your success in life is predetermined by who your parents are. I don't think there's a person in this place whose life experience would actually reflect that, because in this country our success is largely determined by how hard we work. That is one of the great things about our country. It's something we should embrace. It's something that this government embraces by putting in place pro-investment, pro-growth policies, and we will continue to do that. Those policies are working. The alternative vision of those opposite would be very bad for Australia.