Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

It's a good question. I think there is. It's called an elected Labor government. Labor claims to be the friends of small business, yet its policies will hit them hard with more taxes. In fact Bill Shorten's five-point plan is simply two words: more tax, more tax, more tax, more tax and more tax. Under Labor, you will actually legislate to increase the tax rate from 25 per cent to 27.5 per cent for these small and medium businesses after your backflip. Companies with up to $50 million are not the big end of town. They are hardworking Australians employing millions of people right across regional Australia. You will slug Australians with this tax, which will mean that they won't be able to employ more people locally, as Boss Engineering does. You don't understand that the tax paid by hardworking Australians is actually their money. The choice is clear. Only the Liberal-National government believes in reducing taxes and taking the pressure off small business.