Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It never ceases to amaze me, I have to say, that the Labor Party never seem to have the answers in government. They create the problems in government, but, in the wisdom of opposition, apparently they always have a plan that they are going to bring forward. Their plan over the last 18 months has been to stop budget repair. They have stood in the way of tens of billions of dollars worth of savings that would have offset some of the spendthrift and wasteful nature that characterised their government. But the job, as always in repaying Labor's debt and deficit, falls to the prudent policies of the coalition.

I will not gild the lily; not every decision in last year's budget met with my approval. I did not want to see tax rates go up, but that is okay—Labor supported that. I do not want to see Australian consumers hurt; I want to see small business flourish, and the government has undertaken a package in this budget to do exactly that. It has undertaken not to lift taxes. It has undertaken to give a tax break to Australia's small businesses whether they are incorporated, by lowering the tax rate to 28½ per cent, or unincorporated, by allowing them to have a $1,000 tax rebate. That is a magnificent start to spurring the engine room of the Australian economy. If nothing else, the Labor Party's maladministration over the six or so years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments demonstrated that the government does not drive the economy. The government creates problems for those who do undertake productive and effective work.

In the budget handed down by Mr Hockey last night, the centrepiece—the flag-bearer for it, from my point of view—is the way it treats small business. I was brought up in small business; my father was involved in it; I was involved with it before I came into this place. I understand how tough it can be for small business people, whose only motivation, might I add, is to provide for their families, to try and make a dollar, hopefully to grow, and to employ other Australians so that they can lead productive lives and look after their families as well. That is the motivation for bosses, and yet the circumstances we had under Labor were barrier after barrier, red tape after red tape, and green tape after green tape put up in front of small businesses so that not only was it tough for them to get started but it was very tough for them to get any bigger. This government went a long way last night to redressing that, not only by lowering the tax rate but by this magnificent and, I have to say, unbelievably generous measure for immediate depreciation of assets purchased for the business up to the value of $20,000. That is, I think, one of the best policy decisions I have heard. It will stimulate the economy and encourage businesspeople to go out, invest in the assets, the infrastructure and what is necessary for them to function in their business, and employ people going forward. It is a very generous measure, and I think it is fantastic, so I support that.

Also, the government has focused on the ability for businesses to transform out of perhaps an unwieldy structure into a more modern structure. A lot of businesses, when they are incorporated or created, are not set up in the most effective manner for them, which is proved subsequently with their growth and various other changes. The government has implemented some procedures and some regulations that will allow for the minimisation of taxation and costs in respect of the transition to a more flexible or perhaps a more relevant structure for businesses.

The government has also touched on employee share schemes, to make it worthwhile and less onerous for the start-up companies—the ones that are going to drive our economy going forward—to include employees in the benefits of any success that business may have. If you want to look around the world, you will see that some of the great success stories, whether it be Google or Apple or any of these other start-ups that have emerged—Uber and PayPal are other examples—have all had employee share schemes that have enabled those people to go into work and receive a salary perhaps under what they might otherwise command in the private sector but with the upside of business ownership and entrepreneurship. That is the culture we should be encouraging in this country. It is a culture that I absolutely support, because it is what is going to drive innovation—and innovation is what we need to be encouraging.

It is often said at my children's school that information is available, to every child, wherever they go. They can go to Google or anywhere else and get all the information they need, but it is how they analyse and look at that information that is important. That is what they are teaching children in schools today—I hope they are—how to learn, how to digest and how to dissect information.

We have to start to think that our economy cannot be prescriptive. It is not just about manufacturing or mining or anything else. They are very important, but probably the most successful company in this country has not even been started yet. Maybe it started in the last year. We are yet to see it grow, and we cannot even envisage the success of the future that so many people will undertake. That is why innovation, particularly innovation and investment in small business by government, is so welcome.

None of this comes without expense, but it is far better to give a tax break to business that will result in more jobs, overall, than to send cheques for $900 to people who live overseas or who are deceased. One senator said you should be able to put it into the poker machines. A government investing in small business is much better than giving someone money to put into a poker machine. That is just a personal view. I know some on the other side have different views, because they have said them before in this place.

Last night's budget was an excellent budget for the country at the time we find ourselves in. Let us not fool ourselves. We have a massive process ahead of paying back the debt to reclaim the deficits that have been characterised by modern budgets, but we have made some giant inroads along the way. We have cut the deficit that was projected. We have cut the overwhelming national debt that was projected under the previous governments. We are on the right path.

If we can stimulate our economy, if we can continue to grow it—the best way to grow an economy is to get government out-of-the-way of it; it is to cut taxes, allow more freedom and allow more innovation—then we have a real chance of addressing the economic and fiscal problems that our country faces as a result of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments. We cannot afford to continue down the path they set us on, and last night's budget goes a long way to addressing that damage.