Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is the two-year mark of the election of the Abbott government. I think it is timely to place on the record some facts about the Abbott government's record on small business. Despite mountains of rhetoric about being their best friend, Australian small business are suffering after two years of Tony Abbott, whose first budget cut over $5 billion of Labor's direct tax assistance to small business, including the $1.3 billion worth of tax loss carry-back for companies, $3.2 billion in instant asset write-off reductions and special depreciation rules for motor vehicles that would cost $550 million. The hit on confidence from these and other savings' cuts was so great that, in a desperate attempt to save his own job, Tony Abbott had no choice but to bring back Labor's instant asset write-off and tax assistance.

This week we see another broken promise to small business from Tony Abbott, who again decided to indefinitely delay the decision on the introduction of an effects test. So after two years of Tony Abbott, Australian small business people know they cannot trust a man who promises the world but delivers an atlas and three-word slogans. The recent media reports of small business groups announcing their intention to campaign against the government, particularly in marginal seats, should come as no surprise to the government or the Minister for Small Business. It might be useful for the minister to remember his promise to small business people to 'energise enterprise' and to deliver some 'delicious opportunities'. Well, there have been no delicious opportunities for small business from the Abbott government, just the smell of a rotten bunch.