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

I thank Senator Bragg for the question. Senator Bragg and I had the opportunity to visit Settlement Services International recently, and we met with a number of refugees who have come to Australia, and who, with the support of government, are now running their own very successful small and family businesses.

The government understands the value of small and family businesses to the Australian economy, and we understand that when you back small and family businesses you help them to prosper, to grow and, of course, to create more jobs for Australians. But you have to get the policy environment right. Implementing higher taxes, I can assure you, Mr President, is not one of those policy environments that we want to be in. On this side of the chamber, we have successfully lowered the tax rate for small and family businesses from 30 per cent to 27½ per cent, and we know it will go down to 25 per cent in 2021-2022.

We're also addressing the issue of access to finance for small and family businesses with our $2 billion Australian Business Securitisation Fund, and we have also committed to an Australian business growth fund. This will provide long-term equity funding to small businesses.

We also know, though, that being paid on time is a priority for small and family businesses. We're taking the lead, as the government, in relation to this. As of 1 July this year, the government is paying invoices up to the value of $1 million within 20 days. And the finance minister and I have recently announced that as of 1 January 2020 Commonwealth government agencies will start paying e-invoices within five days and that, if we don't, we will pay interest on any late payments.