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

I thank Senator Askew for the question. I acknowledge that it is her first question and congratulate her on that. Colleagues, as we know, in last night's budget the Treasurer yet again overwhelmingly affirmed the coalition's commitment to small and family businesses in Australia. Why? Because we know that small and family businesses are the engine room of the Australian economy. When small and family businesses in Australia grow, they create more jobs for Australians. Last night was a vote of confidence in small and family businesses across Australia. In particular, as you are aware, we increased the instant asset write-off from $25,000 to $30,000 and we extended it out to 30 June 2020.

Colleagues, because of the strong economy that we have put in place, we were also able to increase the threshold, from businesses with an annual turnover of $10 million or less to medium-sized businesses—we've expanded it to medium-sized businesses—with an annual turnover of $50 million or less. That is what you get when you put in place a strong economy: you can give back in particular to small and medium businesses in Australia. That policy alone will benefit around 3.4 million businesses, employing around 7.7 million workers. Of course, this comes on top of our tax cuts for small businesses, which we're able to fast-track, again, because of the policies that we have put in place that have given us a strong economy. These tax cuts will see small and medium businesses in Australia paying 25 per cent by 2122. Again, if you back small and medium business, you create jobs for Australians.