Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Sense-T. The member for Lyons is on fire! Sense-T is another example. There is the capacity to remotely diagnose, through telemetry, the soil conditions, to make sure just the right amount of moisture is there. If you were running one of those farm businesses and irrigation related businesses in Tasmania and you provided your staff with one of these pieces of technology, one is FBT-free. But, if someone went along and provided a tablet to be able to monitor those soil conditions, you risk an FBT event. The Jobs and Small Business package says that we need to be technologically engaged. Say you provide your staff with any number of these devices—perhaps mounted in an all-terrain vehicle—that you purchase from Westbury Mitre 10, taking advantage of the asset write-off, and you have got a tablet fitted into the kit. Or you happen to be out near Meander Dam looking at the flows, and you are using this to do your remote telemetry. Why should that trigger an FBT event, when it is such a tool of doing business? We are opening the door for opportunities for irrigation related produce in Tasmania, and we are providing the platform for what Tasmania does as well as anyone in the world—that is, premium, clean, green, food secure, spectacularly enchanting and delightful food, produce and beverages. We have talked about the whisky that is coming out of the area in the electorate of the member for Lyons. We have talked about the cottage beers and the cheese. This is a great opportunity, and the budget is all about supporting those things.

Another measure that is of great interest is that relating to the encouragement to recruit. I know in some areas of Tasmania there is a need for incentives to bring people back into the workforce and to give them that chance. The budget also provides for that. There are so many great things going on in the budget to support the member for Lyons, to make the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tasmania as delightful as the environmental ecosystem. To build from that base, to have a government that is interested in creating jobs and getting behind private endeavour—what a great story. Member for Lyons, thank you for bringing your contribution to that, to make sure our measures were responding to the needs of your community and energising enterprise in the southern island. I am pumped about that, and I know you are too, Sir.

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