Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to make a note here today that we wanted to raise these issues in the Senate rather than at Senate estimates, particularly at this committee stage before the bills are passed. We do have concerns about potential rorting and unintended consequences, which I outlined in my speech. We want to find out what the thinking was behind setting an essentially uncapped contribution to assets and a $20,000 per asset threshold, given that it has come up from $1,000 to $20,000. The Henry review recommended $10,000 and previously the Labor-Green government settled on $6½ thousand. Was it simply that the budget could not afford the bigger amount or was it that we actually think this is going to be a productive package for small business?

Senator Cormann, could you just quickly outline to us what the expected expenditure will be in the budget, particularly on the asset depreciation part of the measure?