Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I'm fascinated by the tactics of Senator Cameron taking eight minutes, waffling on about anything other than this bill, to tell us about a filibuster. He's claiming a filibuster, and he spent seven or eight minutes going on about what he didn't like about the 2014 budget and quoting the parliamentary secretary at the time, Steven Ciobo, rather than dealing with the bill.

Senator Cameron claims the economy's not going well. That's absolute rubbish. Senator Cameron didn't like Senator Stoker's contribution—or Senator Hume's outstanding contribution—because he wouldn't want the opportunity to put on the record why this kind of legislation is important and how it builds on the Liberal-National government's agenda and achievements of delivering over one million jobs for our economy. Those one million jobs came despite the Labor Party's opposition. Every major measure we took, you were there to oppose it. When we got rid of the carbon tax and when we got rid of the mining tax, you were there to oppose it. When we were cutting back taxes for small and medium enterprises, you were there to oppose it. When we were dealing with union corruption, which holds our economy back, Senator Cameron and the Labor Party were there to oppose it.

Senator Cameron gets up and gives us a lecture. He takes several minutes—in fact eight or nine minutes—on an amendment to give us a lecture about filibustering, and then he claims that those economic credentials and those achievements aren't real. They are real. They haven't come about by accident. They've come about through sound economic policy, through the right legislation and through the right settings. They've come about despite the Labor Party. As we have fixed your economic mess and as we've fixed your budget mess, at every turn you have opposed us.

We will make no apology for talking about our legislative agenda, which is about tax integrity. We have delivered when it comes to multinationals, when you did nothing. What did the Labor Party do on multinationals when they were in government? Absolutely nothing. We had Senator Dastyari come in opposition and talk about what he wanted to do, which they did nothing about when they were in government. They had six years and they didn't get it done. The economy absolutely stagnated. We have taken a different approach, and that has delivered over one million jobs, lower taxes, and services we need for Australians. We've secured our borders. We've built up our defence industry. We are delivering a balanced budget. Those are things the Labor Party could only dream of when they were in government. We're not going to be lectured to by Senator Cameron on this or anything else.

I will now turn to Senator Cameron's and the opposition's amendment. The government announced, in the 2017-18 budget, an integrity measure to ensure that the small business CGT concessions are appropriately targeted to genuine small businesses with effect from 1 July 2017. The opposition's amendment would defer the start of this measure to 8 February 2018. Delaying the start would allow a further period of time in which to transition into the new arrangements. We believe this is an important integrity measure. The government needs to balance any request for a delayed start against the risk of providing more scope for entities to inappropriately access the small business CGT concessions. Notwithstanding these concerns, the government is willing to support the amendment proposed by the opposition to delay the start to 8 February to 18. The small business CGT concessions are not changing. These concessions provide valuable relief from taxation for small business owners on capital gains on the disposal of assets related to their business, allowing them to reinvest and grow as well as contribute to their retirement savings. Passing this bill will ensure small business CGT concessions are appropriately targeted so they can continue to benefit those that need it the most—hardworking Australian small businesses.