Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on why it is important to lower the tax burden to support more and better-paid jobs for hardworking Australians, including those in my electorate of Grey?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for his question. As he knows, the Turnbull government has already delivered lower taxes for 3.2 million small businesses in Australia employing some 6½ million Australians—that's half the Australian workforce and more—for businesses with a turnover up to $50 million a year. There are tax cuts for businesses with turnovers of above $2 million and up to $50 million that the Labor Party will reverse if they ever get back to the treasury bench. They will remove those small business tax cuts for hardworking small businesses across Australia. Those tax cuts already delivered have been part of the plan that has supported job creation in this country: 1,100 jobs created every single day, and more last year. The job growth that we have seen in our economy over the last 12 months, in calendar year 2017, is unprecedented. Jobs growth is so strong in this country, I notice even Sam Dastyari got a job this week!

These companies that will get the tax cuts next are not multinationals. They're not big companies. The next cab off the rank, the next companies to get a tax cut under our enterprise tax plan, are companies of between $50 million and $100 million a year in turnover. They employ half a million Australians and, on average, have 200 workers. But, as the member for Grey knows, they can be companies with as few as 30 employees, which includes Hunts Fuel in Jamestown, in the member's own electorate. They are suburban businesses. They are regional businesses. These are businesses that the Labor Party are lined up against to deny them a tax cut so they can pay their workers better wages and invest more in the future of their business. The member for Barker knows about Angove Family Winemakers, a fifth-generation family winery based in Renmark, that exports South Australian wine products across the world. He wants them to get a tax cut. The Labor Party says no to that.

The member for Adelaide, by contrast, wants Nobles, an Adelaide based manufacturer of lifting and rigging equipment with 300 Australians employed in their business, to pay higher taxes, not lower taxes under our plan, as they seek to ride out the transition from the mining investment boom. The member for Makin wants Ellex Medical Lasers in his electorate to pay higher taxes. This is an innovative laser technology company at Mawson Lakes with more than 200,000 South Australian employees. How do they think that forcing companies to pay higher taxes will help them deliver wage increases for Australians?

If you had to choose between a company run by the Leader of the Opposition or the Prime Minister, which company do you think would be more profitable and able to pay their workers more? There's no question. You wouldn't trust the Leader of the Opposition to run a company—and you wouldn't trust him to run the country either. (Time expired)