Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am so pleased that the Abbott government has finally learnt something about small business, because it was pretty clear last year that the Abbott government had no idea about small business. In fact, under Labor we had the instant asset write-off, we had loss carry-back provisions and we had accelerated depreciation of motor vehicles, but the Abbott government did not understand these measures, and took an axe to them as one of their first orders of business when they took government at the end of 2013.

And what did they announce for small business, to great fanfare? A 1½ per cent cut to the company tax rate. If they had actually realised anything at all about small business, if they had any idea about how small business works, the Abbott government would have realised that most small businesses are not incorporated. A 1½ per cent cut to the company tax rate does not help an unincorporated business. Unfortunately, the government had no idea about this and so, in wandering around the countryside claiming that this measure was somehow going to be great for small business, they looked like complete buffoons.

Thankfully, the Council of Small Business Australia, led by Peter Strong, came to their aid. The council sat them down and explained to them how small business worked—sat them down, and said, 'Look, guys, you might have heard of this thing called sole traders, ABNs; I know it sounds really complicated.' So you have the small business peak body actually explaining it to this government. Thank goodness that now, at least—belatedly—they are starting to introduce some pro-small-business measures. They have come to the realisation that Labor's policy of having an instant asset write-off was good, sound policy aimed at assisting small businesses with their finances. Of course, cash is very important in small business. That is why we in government had such strong pro-small-business measures.

The other thing that is really important for a small business is, of course, a good economy in which to operate. Sadly for the small businesses of Australia and for the working people of Australia, the Abbott government's first budget was an utter catastrophe for this nation's economy. They come in and they make cuts: cuts to higher education; $80 billion in cuts to the states for education and health; cuts to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; cuts to the Australian Taxation Office; cuts to the CSIRO; cuts to pensions; the cuts to the ABC; the cuts to the SBS—all of the cuts. In fact, name one program in this country and it is pretty likely that it was cut by the Abbott government in its first budget or—I should say quite rightly—that the Abbott government attempted to make cuts, because Labor stood up strongly against this government's attempts to take an axe to public finances, and we have been really successful in things like stopping them from taking the axe to pensions in the way in which they intended. We have been really successful in doing that, because we have campaigned so strongly and the people of this nation have stood up and said, 'No, you cannot cut pensions.' The people of this nation have stood up and said, 'No, you cannot cut funds to higher education.' It is just ridiculous. At a time when our competitors in Tokyo and in Beijing are increasing public funding to higher education to bump their universities up the charts, what do the Abbott government want to do to higher education in this country, our biggest export industry? They want to take an axe to it. But I digress. Thankfully, the Council of Small Business Australia and other expert groups and small businesses themselves have explained to the Abbott government that in fact what you really need to do is have measures that support small business.

One of the really important things for small business, as I said, is finance. The previous speaker in this debate spoke about the fact that a lot of small business owners mortgage their house to get access to finance in order to start up. That is a massive difficulty on people who want to start small businesses, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, not everyone has an asset the size of a house to mortgage. Secondly, there are a lot of entrepreneurs in Australia who will tell you that small businesses and start-up businesses in Australia are more risk averse and more cautious than people in, say, Silicon Valley. Of course they are. Their house is at risk here in Australia. That is often the case for small businesses, and that is why on budget reply night Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, made a fantastic announcement of benefit to small business. He talked about providing access to finance for start-ups without people having to mortgage their homes. What is the consequence of that? It is not just the increased access to financing, and therefore the encouragement of new small businesses, but the fact that it is going to encourage people once they are in business to be able to take more risk and to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. That is why it is such a fantastic measure. We will always support small business, as we always have.

Debate adjourned

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