Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McEwen, for the question. Small business is, of course, at the heart of the Australian economy and it is the efforts of Australia's 2.7 million small business owners—their long hours, their hard work—that keeps over 4.7 million Australians employed. Small business contributes around 35 per cent of private sector industry value-added or around a fifth of our GDP. The Gillard Labor government understands how important it is to support small business people and to this end we have introduced a number of programs and reforms to assist them. These are aimed at increasing cash flow, reducing red tape and providing information in a simple and easy-to-access way. For example, from 1 July this year all small businesses will be able to immediately write off each eligible business asset they buy that costs less than $6,500 per asset. This will be worth more than $1 billion to small business in 2013-14 alone. This change to the asset write-off provisions and the new simplified depreciation pooling arrangements for other assets will increase cash flow and save time, money and paperwork. In addition, from 1 July the government is providing new tax relief to help businesses return to profit. In 2012-13 companies will be able to carry back tax losses of up to $1 million so they can get a refund against tax previously paid. From 2013-14 companies will be able to carry back tax losses for two years, and this will provide a tax benefit of up to $300,000 per year. The government will also extend support services to small businesses, and I have spoken about these in the chamber previously. The Small Business Advisory Service will be made ongoing, with additional funding of $28 million over the next four years, and the very popular small business support line will be extended—(Time expired)