Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I do my best also to try and represent, to the best of my ability, the people of Wannon.

Once again it is a pleasure to be here tonight to talk on this cognate debate on the five appropriation bills. It gives me a chance to talk about what the budget did for the electorate of Wannon but also what it did for the nation and what it did for your wonderful electorate as well. It is a budget which delivers for the nation. It really contrasts how a coalition government delivers for Australia with how the Labor Party failed to deliver for the nation. It is important, as we approach the midway of our first term in government, that we look at that and we start to contrast. Those opposite are over there reading their books. They are not interested in debating the appropriation bills. They are more concerned with fiction than with fact. I can understand why they would be more concerned with fiction than with fact. If you look at what was in the budget reply speech, I would be a bit worried about the fiction and the facts as well. I do not think the Leader of the Opposition's mathematics on STEM was all that good. I think he might have left off a few zeros. I think there was a little bit of a concern that he might not have understood that what he was talking about on STEM came with a $2.25 billion cost figure. He had the facts and the fiction a little bit confused, and that must be very concerning for those opposite. But enough on that.

What was this budget about for the nation? That is what the Australian people want us to focus on. The first clear message out of the budget was that the government remains committed to returning the budget to surplus as soon as possible—and I will just farewell the member for Lyons, who is leaving us, and once again commend him for his wonderful contribution. The budget at its heart was about returning the budget to surplus as soon as possible, because the fundamental premise of this government is that we have to live within our means. We saw six years of some of the most reckless spending that you are ever likely to see when the Labor Party was in government between 2007 and 2013, and once again it has been left to the coalition to fix the mess that Labor gave us—and that is what we are doing.

The budget will slowly head towards surplus over the forward estimates. That is something that I think is incredibly important, because we cannot assume that good times will roll on forever. We cannot assume, in the current economic climate, that we will not be buffeted again. We have to ensure that we have put the protections there so that if some ill-headwinds blow our way we are prepared to combat them and we have the economy in a state in which it can deal with them. That is why it is so important that we live within our means.

We have done this. We have been able to head the budget into surplus, even though we have seen a write-down of $52 billion in tax receipts due to what has happened with the iron ore price. This is the largest fall in the terms of trade in over 50 years, yet we are still on a trajectory to get the budget back to surplus. This is an achievement. I see those opposite raise their heads from their book of fiction, and it makes me a little bit curious, because it reminds me of a budget speech given by the then Labor Treasurer, Wayne Swan. As I recall, in four forward estimates he promised a budget surplus, yet he was never able to achieve it. The budget speeches in which he promised four surpluses in the forward estimates will go down as the greatest pieces of fiction this parliament has ever witnessed. It probably will not be quite as interesting as whatever the honourable member opposite is reading at the moment, but it was one of the greatest acts of fiction we have seen in this place.

But the government is not about that. We want to see the budget deficit narrow from $35.1 billion, or 2.1 per cent of GDP, in 2015-16, to $6.9 billion in 2018-19, or 0.4 per cent of GDP. How are we doing this? This is the important aspect of it. We are putting constraints on spending. That is what those opposite could not do, but that is what we are determined to do.

When you listened to the budget-in-reply speech from the Leader of the Opposition, spending announced already totalled $52 billion, and, after the budget reply spending spree, they now have a $58 billion black hole. That means that in his speech the Leader of the Opposition was blowing $200 million a minute. I know my good friend sitting opposite remembers a certain appearance on Sky channel where I mentioned the quote from Jerry Maguire: 'Show me the money.' This is Bill Shorten's jerry maguire moment. Come on, Bill, show us the money. Until you can do that, the Australian people are never going to take you seriously. In the budget-in-reply speech, once again he could not deliver. His jerry maguire moment disappeared—$200 million a minute in spending, but when it came to 'Where's the money coming from?', Bill Shorten could not answer and will not answer. In the next 18 months, as we lead up to the next election, let's put the warning in there: Leader of the Opposition, we are going to hold you to account on this issue. On a daily basis we are going to ask you where the money is coming from. As you have heard, there is no magic pudding. There is no money tree in the Parliament House garden. You actually have to be able to produce the figures and show us where the money will come from. Until you can do that you have no credibility.

What else was in the budget that was important? The small-business package obviously was incredibly important. This budget was not only about making sure that we are getting the budget back into surplus, but it is also about encouraging small business, the absolute engine room of our nation. Small business represents 96 per cent of all businesses in Australia, and most coalition members, in one form or another, come from a small business background. We get small business. We understand it, and we understand how important it is. We understand how important it is that small business invests, that small business employs and that small business provides confidence into the economy to help the economy grow.

What are we doing for small business? Obviously, for those businesses that are incorporated, there is the 1½ per cent tax cut for those with a turnover under $2 million. There is a discount of five per cent, up to $1,000, for the 1.7 million small businesses that are unincorporated. Once again, we understood that if you are going to have a package for small business in your budget, you have to understand that you have incorporated small business and you have unincorporated small business. Once again, the Leader of the Opposition showed us that he does not understand this. He talked about some potential tax cut which Labor might provide, maybe in a bipartisan form, of five per cent to those incorporated businesses; he did not even talk about unincorporated small businesses. It was just complete fairyland stuff.

The budget delivers the lowest small business company tax rate since 1967. I do not know whether Mr Deputy Speaker Irons will remember this, but 1967 was when Richmond broke their premiership drought of over 40 years. It was great to see the tigers win the flag, but 1967 is quite some time ago now. That was the last time that the small business company tax rate was lower. We are providing accelerated depreciation arrangements to small businesses and primary producers. We are simplifying depreciation rules in the tax law in order to increase the threshold for immediate deductibility from $1,000 to $20,000. The small businesses and farming community in my electorate have welcomed this with open arms. The fantastic thing about it was it meant that these small businesses and farming businesses could access it immediately. It came in once the budget was announced: budget night—bang—'You can take advantage of this'. I can tell you that I have been around my electorate going into small businesses and talking to farmers; they are excited about this potential, and they want to act on it.

Farmers are also able to immediately deduct all eligible capital expenditure on fencing and water facilities. Fodder storage assets will be deductible over three years. Once again, this is the coalition recognising the important contribution that farming makes to our nation. Not only that, we are backing up what we have done with the free trade agreements with South Korea, China and Japan. We are saying to farmers: 'We want to make life easier for you, we want to put a bit more money back in your pocket and we want you to be able to capitalise on these three wonderful free trade agreements which are going to set up not only our agricultural sector but our services sector for now and into the future.'

Of course, Mr Deputy Speaker Irons, as you are well aware, there is the families package as well. It is a terrific families package focused on child care and making sure that more people can get access to child care, and that will help those people access the workforce. We, on the side, believe that the best thing that you can do for people is make sure that they have a job. We are not like those opposite, who are quite happy to encourage welfare dependence; we want to make sure that people are out there working.

There were also significant contributions in this budget specifically for projects in my electorate, such as the Grampians Peaks Trail. That will be a wonderful tourism trail and encourage tourists from all around the world, and there is $10 million to complete that. People will be able to walk from the southern end of the Grampians to the northern end of the Grampians, staying, camping and just having a wonderful tourist experience. I am looking forward to walking along part of the proposed trail on this coming long weekend, when I will be entering the Serra Terror. We will be walking 80 kilometres over two days through the Grampians to raise money for the local Dunkeld community. I am very much looking forward to that.

There was the Port Fairy waterfront development of $1.425 million. That will be a wonderful project to give a new uplift to the Port Fairy waterfront, and I look forward to working with the local council there to see that development. There was also, importantly, funding for roads and funding for other important assets in the electorate.

I must commend the Treasurer for this budget because he has been able to combine two significant things. Firstly, he has been able to start dealing with the debt and deficit legacy that we have been left by those opposite. Secondly, he has also been able to set up this budget to give confidence to the Australian community, and especially to the small business community, that we believe in you, we believe in your enterprise and we believe that you can grow our economy to help it prosper—and not only help it prosper but ensure that the families and individuals of Australia continue to prosper because that is what this budget is all about, it is all about people.

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