Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. Senator Polley thinks that 10,000 jobs, in terms of growth, is not good news, which is disappointing to hear.

But we should be here as a government to assist those who wish to work hard, who wish to contribute to the economy and who wish to see Australia become a better place. Sometimes that requires incentivising growth—people taking risks and people wanting to do better for themselves. I don't think we should demonise wealth. I don't think we should demonise people who wish to do a little better for themselves. This is something that I've referred to before. There's no talk from the opposition or indeed from the crossbench—or at least some of the crossbench—when it comes to nurturing aspiration. I've not heard one opposition senator talk about the need to encourage young people to want to do better for themselves, to start a business, to invest, to build a home, to employ others and to make sure that when their kids come into the world they're going to have a better life and should be encouraged to do the same.

I recently had the good fortune to travel with my wife to visit some relatives in the United States. One thing I noticed was the difference in culture and attitude towards enterprise. The people there want to take a risk and invest their money. The people there desire a better standard of living—a better home and a better car. I don't think that's a bad thing. You don't see there the envy that gets thrown around the place in Australia, where people say it is bad that a person drives an expensive car or lives in a big house, that they shouldn't have it because that person over there doesn't have it. I don't think that's the right attitude. Instead, I believe we should be encouraging people to aspire to that themselves. In this country we have every opportunity to do that, and we should be encouraging people to do that. I don't believe wealth creation should be something people are ashamed of, and it's not something we should be preventing people from doing—in particular, young people.

I would reiterate that things are going well in terms of opportunities for people to secure employment and save for the future. There were 240,000 jobs created in the last financial year, the largest increase in employment since before the GFC a decade ago. That is great news. So people are going to have the opportunity to get a job, pay their bills and put money away for the future. If you listen to Senator Ketter, and to some of the contributions in similar debates in previous days, it's all about taxing the top end and clamping down on negative gearing. I'm not sure how many senators and members in this place have multiple investment properties. I don't think that's a bad thing if they do. If over the course of their working lives they have managed to acquire property, to invest, to put something away for their retirement, well done to them. But it sends the wrong message when they come in here and say it's bad that properties are negatively geared and we have to clamp down on those people who do that.

The Productivity Commission found in 2015 that 40 per cent of families paid no net tax—once transfer payments such as family tax benefit are taken into account. Contrast that with the top 10 per cent of income earners, who pay almost 50 per cent of the personal income tax received by the Australian government. The top one per cent of individuals pay a staggering 17 per cent of all tax received and the top 0.3 per cent of individuals pay 58 per cent of the capital gains tax. They're paying a decent amount of government revenue. To me, it looks like they're doing a fair share of the heavy lifting when it comes to paying tax.

But Australians know that increasing taxes does not increase wages; as we have said many times over, it stifles growth. So I would call on my colleagues on the other side to alter their thinking on this. Don't adopt the socialist and, to a degree, communist way and try to prevent people from growing their personal wealth. Look to foster growth and 'nurture aspiration'. I look forward to Senator Polley's contribution on this, to see how many times she talks about 'nurturing aspiration' in the state of Tasmania, where young people want to make a go of things and have a better future. (Time expired)