Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Smith for the question. I think all of us on this side of the chamber are very pleased that today we were able to deliver on fast-tracking our tax cuts for small and medium businesses throughout Australia. The good news, as Senator Cormann has pointed out, is that, because of the strong economy that those of us on this side of the chamber, the Liberal-National side of the chamber, have put in place, we have been able to deliver those tax cuts five years earlier than planned. This means that almost three million small and medium businesses across Australia will have their tax rate reduced to 25 per cent by 2021-22. This is a great win for these Australian businesses and the nearly seven million Australians they employ. On the ground in Western Australia approximately 350,000 businesses are now going to benefit because of the work of our government.

Like Senator Smith I have had the privilege of visiting a number of these businesses. I was recently in Albany with our good friend and colleague Mr Rick Wilson. We had the opportunity to visit Southern Haulage, a great example of a small business, which began 50 years ago and has now grown to having 50 trucks and employing over 100 people. While we were talking to the owners of this fantastic family business, they were telling us about how the coalition's tax cuts would mean they can keep more of the money they generate in their back pocket but also can re-invest it back into their business so that they can continue to grow their business. They're currently at 50 trucks; they'd like to go further. They currently employ 100 people but they'd like to employ more.