Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would say to the member for Chisholm that if she wants to talk to small businesses that are very appreciative of the measures in the budget, particularly the small business measures, come to Launceston. Come to Launceston and have a chat to Tas Americanos who runs Ellie May's, the best hot potato in Launceston. Come to Launceston and talk to fisherman Karl Krause, or the proprietor of Hullaballoo Balloons, or John Hutton from Glasgow Engineering, or Ian Lee from Cycology and you will get a sense that small businesses have embraced the measures in the budget, predominantly the small business measure that the member for Chisholm mentioned in her speech.

The morning after the Treasurer delivered the 2015 budget I did a live cross to a very well attended breakfast in Launceston run by KPMG, and I was able to highlight key aspects in the budget for Tasmania. I was able to report to the hundreds of people at that breakfast and a significant number of year 11 and 12 young people a couple of hours later that the 2015 budget strengthens Australia's economic future and is great news for our home state of Tasmania.

There are a complementary range of new measures that are all about families, small business and jobs—enhancing our productivity and growth and leveraging the government's record spending on infrastructure. The three key themes in the 2015 budget build on the strong foundations that we have established since the 2013 election. We are focusing on exactly those things that people asked us to focus on—jobs, families and fiscal responsibility. I will deal with each of those in turn.

On the issue of jobs, this is undoubtedly a jobs-focused budget. It has been warmly welcomed in Tasmania. I have had both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer in Launceston. We have walked the streets of Launceston and we have got that reception from people about how warmly welcomed it has been. This budget builds on the impressive jobs achievements of this government in the last 18 months. Importantly, there is no longer an '8' in front of Tasmania's unemployment rate. There is a '6' in front of it. That is still too high, but we are finally heading in the right direction after too many years of Labor and Labor-Green government in Hobart and Canberra.

It is worth noting that 13,000 jobs were created in Tasmania in 2014, compared to the loss of 5,000 jobs in 2013 under Labor-Green governments in Hobart and Canberra. This budget works to create even more jobs by incentivising small business with a turnover of up to $2 million, who will get their lowest tax rate in nearly 50 years, with a 1.5 per cent company tax cut or a five per cent cut on their tax payable up to $1,000 if they are unincorporated.

We have dealt already with the accelerated depreciation allowance which increases from its threshold of $1,000 to $20,000, enabling small business to get an immediate tax deduction for purchases of everything from a motor vehicle to cooking equipment. When the Prime Minister and Treasurer came to Launceston, we went from business to business and that reception was wonderful indeed. Even my barber, Spike the Barber, thought this was a great thing. He got himself a picture with Treasurer Joe Hockey and told him how warmly he welcomed the measures in this budget.

Consider for a moment why that is the case, Madam Deputy Speaker. Let us just look at the numbers relating to this small business measure. In northern Tasmania, in Braddon, there are 6,483 small businesses with a turnover under $2 million. There are 7,050 small businesses in Lyons and 7,587 small businesses in my electorate of Bass. So it is little wonder, with that many small businesses, the engine room of the Australian economy, that the measures in the budget have been so warmly welcomed.

There is also a substantial jobs package addressing the needs of both younger and mature-age workers, a new youth employment strategy targeting young people who are currently disengaged from employment or education and a new work experience program to incentivise employers to take on job seekers for 25 hours a week for four weeks. The jobs package will also support older Australians, with employers given an accelerated payment of up to $10,000 for taking on workers over the age of 50 who have been on income support. From 13 May, from the budget, as part of the growing jobs and small business package, a higher subsidy payment of up to $6,500, up from $3,250, will be available under the Tasmanian jobs program and includes a payment of $3,250 for part-time places. As you can see, the Abbott government is clearly committed to continuing employment growth in my state.

I will talk briefly about some of the mendacious claims from those opposite about the unemployment rate being too high at the moment at 6.2 per cent. I would agree that we need to do everything to bring that rate down. But I refer them to the charter of budget honesty. I refer them to the pre-election fiscal outlook released by the former Treasurer, Wayne Swan, on 13 August 2013, where he said:

The unemployment rate is expected to increase from 5.6 per cent in the June quarter 2013 to 6¼ per cent in the June quarter 2014, and stabilise at that rate through to the June quarter 2015.

So their own prediction was unemployment would go to 6.25 per cent. It is currently at 6.2 per cent, below Mr Swan's forecast, and somehow that is a disaster. That was their own forecast before the 2013 election. So let's stop the hypocrisy about unemployment, particularly as it relates to my home state of Tasmania, where we are off the bottom of the national unemployment list finally, after 16 years of state Labor government and six years of Labor-Greens government in Canberra, and moving in the right direction.

This budget also includes funding for a range of projects in my electorate that are so important to our future prosperity. There is a relatively small project that was announced in the budget: $1.47 million to fund 50 per cent of the exciting north-east rail trail project, which will support the construction of 70 kilometres of rail between Launceston and Scottsdale using the old railway infrastructure. I congratulate Dorset Council for the work they are doing to progress this exciting project, which will create jobs in the construction phase and create another boost to tourism in northern Tasmania. It will add further lustre to north-east Tasmania's reputation as a preferred cycling destination encompassing world-class mountain bike trails and road cycling routes.

Consider, for example, the benefits of the federal government's investment of $2.5 million in the Blue Derby mountain bike trails that I opened last year. These benefits are already evident: hundreds of cyclists each weekend; shops opening in Derby, this tiny agricultural town in north-east Tasmania; new accommodation being planned; and a prediction that an additional 10,000 to 15,000 visitors will come to Tasmania annually to ride these mountain bike trails in the future. If you are looking for a corollary, there is a little town in Colorado called Fruita. It is a little agricultural town that was not going anywhere very quickly in the past but is now the centre for mountain bike tourism in the United States. We hope that the north-east mountain bike trails in Scottsdale will have the same effect for north-east Tasmania.

Other projects that will make a real difference to my community include $6 million for the Northbank redevelopment, $5.2 million to improve the Bell Bay intermodal terminal, completing the $3 million Tamar River recovery plan and almost $3 million in innovation and investment fund assistance to local businesses. In fact, around 400 new jobs will be created as a direct result of innovation and investment fund assistance to 41 Tasmanian small businesses.

On the infrastructure front I talked about a record level of infrastructure investment in last year's budget—$50 billion, of which $1 billion is coming to Tasmania. $786 million of that will be spent during the period 2013-14 to 2018-19, including $34 million for north-east freight roads in my electorate of Bass. We also see in the budget the continued funding for the $35 million hospice@HOME program and for additional elective surgery.

Two big announcements which are game changers for Tasmania are the increased funding for the Tasmanian freight equalisation scheme and $60 million for tranche 2 irrigation projects. Funding for the Tasmanian freight equalisation scheme is $203 million over the forward estimates, an extra $50 million every year, and $60 million for tranche 2 irrigation projects, including the Scottsdale scheme in my electorate of Bass, will provide 95 per cent water certainty in these areas. It will enable the conversion of marginal land, pretty much not usable for other purposes, into something that is far more productive. It will mean increased agricultural products tapping into the trifecta of free trade agreements that this government concluded in 2014, and it will be a boon for my electorate of Bass and broader Tasmania.

The local benefits are certainly being seen, as I said, from an infrastructure perspective. The Kings Meadows Connector is completed. That means that traffic is no longer backing up onto the Midland Highway. We have the Kings Meadows Connector done. The Prospect Vale black spot is fixed. The Invermay Park redevelopment, where Ricky Ponting first started his career with the Mowbray Cricket Club, is about to be completed. New work is starting every day, revitalising north-east Tasmania. I am determined to deliver on the promises that the government made to the people of Bass, and this budget continues to fulfil those promises.

There is a significant families theme in the budget, which has been well illuminated by my colleagues. The clear focus of our child care package is getting more parents into work and helping them stay in work, and that is one reason why the activity test is being tightened so that government childcare support actually requires the parents to be working.

Fiscal responsibility is a third key theme in the budget. It is about fixing the fiscal inheritance that we received from the Labor Greens government and enhancing the integrity of our tax system. Importantly, all new spending in this budget is offset by savings, and new measures help ensure that our tax and welfare systems are fair. There are anti-avoidance rules for multinationals, greater penalties for tax avoidance and companies must submit more information about their global transfer pricing arrangements under the country by country reporting standards. We are better resourcing the ATO to enhance GST compliance, and companies without a domestic taxable presence who sell services into the Australian market, like Netflix, will now be subject to the GST.

By way of comparison, having talked at length—and I could talk for many hours more about the good things that are happening in Tasmania as a result of this budget—let me just spend a couple of minutes on the contrast, that reckless, confused and directionless alternative offered by the Labor Party. The Leader of the Opposition's budget reply shows that nothing has changed. There is still no idea of what his plan is and how he is going to pay for it. Now, Tony Burke will not even confirm that the Leader of the Opposition's thought bubble of a five per cent small business tax cut will even last until the next election. It is the same level of muddled thinking, the same lack of direction and purpose, the same lack of commitment to the best interests of Australia that delivered us Labor's debt and deficit disaster with the six biggest deficits in Australia's history.

As a former senior public servant, I see very clearly the flaws in Labor's response to this budget. The Leader of the Opposition went through rhetorical gymnastics in one radio interview to deny his culpability in the debt and deficit legacy of the government that he was a key player in. Having so badly damaged our economic freedom of action, Labor in 2014-15 has made the problem worse by standing in the way of us fixing the problem that they created. Consider that during just six years of Labor and Labor Greens government, government spending increased by 50 per cent. That is one reason why today we borrow $100 million more every day than the revenue we bring in. That is why the job in the last budget and the continuing job in this budget and future budgets is so necessary to ensure the economic sustainability of our country and to ensure that we recapture our economic freedom of action so if there is another international crisis we can better respond to it.

My state, our country, is seeing real progress—our economic plan is working, growth is up and jobs are up. Labor's projected debt and deficit have already been cut in half, and this year's budget delivers a credible path to surplus. As I said, our aspiration is to regain our economic freedom of action and help Australians get ahead to provide them with greater capacity to make their own decisions about their future. That is why this budget is good for families, it is good for small business and it is good for Australia.

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