Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under this Prime Minister, household debt is already at a record high, and gross debt has reached half a trillion dollars for the first time in Australian history. The governor of the Reserve Bank has said:

We have very high levels of debt, very high … asset prices, that's our number one domestic risk …

Prime Minister, given that warning, isn't this the worst possible time to lock in an $80 billion big-business tax cut?

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

I thank the member for his question and the Prime Minister for the opportunity to respond. Under this government, we've taken gross debt, which was growing at 30 per cent under the Labor Party, under the current budget and forward estimates to two per cent. From 30 per cent to two per cent. That's what's happened. We have wrestled Labor's gorilla of debt to the ground; that's what we've done. Net debt this year turns around and we pay it down by $30 billion over the next four years and $230 billion over the next 10 years. That's what this government has been doing.

I'm asked about what's happening in terms of the economy and what the impact of that is on revenue. We all know how many times the member for Lilley took a swing and a miss when it came to estimating revenue, but it never stopped them from spending the money! He was out by five per cent every single year; a swing and a miss every single time. What I can inform the House of today, as the Minister for Finance has, is that our company tax revenue, as of the end of May, to the end of the year, is up by $1.1 billion. That's what's happening. Increasingly of importance is the fact that our expenditure at that time is also down $3 billion. This is a government living within its means. This is a government that has taken the debt and the deficit of the Labor Party and has worked tirelessly year after year since we were elected to turn it all around. In 2019-20 we will come back to surplus one year ahead of projection.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Isaacs is warned.

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

That is one year ahead of what was forecast, because we're a government that knows how to live within its means.

What the Labor Party is about is taxes going up and up and up, whether it's the $5 billion tax on retirees or putting up taxes on small- and medium-sized businesses. The Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Labor Party, and the shadow Treasurer have to be honest with the businesses of Australia: are you going to reject and reverse the tax cuts for small businesses between $2 million and $10 million? The Leader of the Opposition, on a captain's call, could go out there yesterday and unilaterally declare that the tax cut's gone for $10 million to $50 million. We know that the member for Sydney doesn't think it should happen. We know that the Leader of the Opposition has gone around telling everybody that he's going to reverse the whole package. Tell them straight. I know that he finds it hard to make telling the truth a habit, but on this one occasion he should be clear to the Australian public and the millions of businesses and the millions of Australians who work in those businesses: are you going to claw back the tax cut that was legislated by this parliament for businesses between $2 million and $10 million? It's a pretty simple question. The shadow Treasurer has been running around in circles on it for two years. He can't fess up to it. We've got by-elections in Longman, in Braddon, in Western Australia— (Time expired)

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation. Will the minister update the House on how the government's small-business tax relief stimulates jobs growth and investment? Is the minister aware of any differing ideas that undermine business confidence and threaten jobs?

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra. The member for Berowra gets it. He gets that small and medium family enterprises and businesses are the backbone of his electorate. The Prime Minister gets its. The Treasurer gets it. In fact, everyone on this side of the House gets it.

In fact, even the United Nations gets it—happy Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. In their press release today, the United Nations reiterated their thoughts from last year:

Those enterprises, which generally employ fewer than 250 persons, are the backbone of most economies worldwide …

Even the United Nations gets the fact that small and medium family businesses are the backbone of any country. I'll tell you who doesn't get it: the Leader of the Opposition. You know what? I reckon there are plenty of people behind him that actually get this.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bass!

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bass gets it. You're right, Attorney-General. In the member for Maribyrnong's seat, there is a family-run, independent supermarket business. It's a third-generation family business. It has been there for over 50 years. It has 140 staff, with 40 of them full time and 100 of them part time, predominantly schoolkids and university students. They turn over a tick over $20 million a year. They operate at a gross margin of around two per cent. They compete with Coles and Woolworths on a daily basis. The Leader of the Opposition would have you believe that that is a business, already facing a national giant, that does not deserve to keep more of its own generated profits.

The Leader of the Opposition is happy to trash businesses in pursuit a class war. He does not understand that high turnovers don't necessarily mean high profits, because he has never been involved in a business or the running of a business. There are businesses all over his electorate, and every electorate of every member in this country, where that equation is the same. They are the backbone of all our seats. The Leader of the Opposition has gone over the top. He's out of the trench, head first into battle against this sector of the economy. My question to those opposite—I don't have to ask it on this side, just of those opposite—especially those in the economic leadership team, is whether they have the courage to stand up for this most important sector of our economy. Those businesses are in all of your seats. They employ an overwhelming majority—70 per cent—of Australians. Do not stand behind your leader and sell them out for the sake of a cheap political class war.