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

Thank you, Senator Smith, for the question, and how fabulous—in the last question time of the second last week of parliament, we get to talk about the achievements of the Liberal-National government when it comes to small and family business. Well, colleagues, guess what we have done: we have lowered their taxes to 25 per cent five years earlier than planned because of our strong economy. That's an achievement. We are ensuring that small and family businesses get easier access to finance with our $2 billion securitisation fund. That's backing small and family business. We are, of course, giving small and family businesses access to the $20,000 instant asset write-off. We've made the business activity statement easier to fill out for them, because we understand that any bit of their time we can give back to them is precious. We've cut nearly $6 billion in red tape.

Last night the Prime Minister announced at the ACCI dinner that we are going to ensure that small and family businesses get a fair go when it comes to the Australian Taxation Office. We will ensure that a small business that has a dispute with the Australian Taxation Office will have better access to dispute resolution. Why? Because all of the feedback that we have received is that the existing tax disputes mechanism is complex; quite frankly, it's probably scary for small and family businesses; and it is not sufficiently fair. So the Prime Minister has announced a new Small Business Taxation Division outside of the Australian Taxation Office. This is very important, because we need the independence. It will be located within the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. What we've also announced is streamlining. You need a decision within 28 days, because we understand small businesses need a decision so they can get back on with doing what we want them to do best, and that is, of course, to prosper, grow and create more jobs for Australians.