Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Have a go! Have a go—out the door! And then there is a tax cut of up to $1,000 for unincorporated small businesses. But, most significantly, anyone out there who has a small business with a turnover of less than $2 million can buy items that support their business activity and write it off against their tax on 1 July—100 per cent of it. So they now have an opportunity to buy the equipment that is going to help make their businesses more profitable and successful.

There are 7,050 small businesses in the member for Lyons' electorate, and many of those are in agriculture, in farming. In fact, across Australia, eight in 10 jobs in farming are in small businesses. In construction, six in 10 jobs are in small business—all those tradies out there: Tony's tradies! Tony's tradies are getting a massive benefit out of this budget because we want them to get the very best tools, we want them to be able to improve their business, we want to help smash that red-tape burden that they have to go through at night, in order to make their business viable.

The member for Lyons called me this morning and told me the story of Jane Shaw, who is the proprietor of the Ingleside bakery in Evandale. That is a beautiful town, Evandale, and it is a great bakery. I am familiar with it! The Prime Minister went there—the Prime Minister's bakers as well! She has a staff of 15 people, mostly casuals and two who are full time, and has a turnover of around $1 million a year. She described the budget news as 'really fantastic'. She has great optimism. This morning she was planning what the business can buy with that new allowance and she said, 'This is going to massively help with the cash flow.' We are the best friends of Australia's small businesses. We are the best friends of the workers.

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