Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

There is a very simple answer. Firstly, there is no net government debt, which is a dramatic turnaround in terms of interest rate pressures. Secondly, on all of the key indicators which you would look at—interest rates, unemployment and inflation—there has been an extraordinary performance. What that means is that the precise question of foreign debt has been calculated into the markets and into economic performance and there has been a real change.

Looking forward to the major initiatives, I believe we need to consider three major reforms over the coming years. Firstly, there is workplace flexibility. What we are seeing now is a gradual improvement in workplace flexibility in Australia. Why is this important? It is important because it gives small businesses the chance to make decisions without fear of having to pay go away money. As so many small firms have said to me and to my colleagues, they are simply not willing to bring people on in case they have a bad experience and in case somebody does not perform. Now, however, it is a different regime. It is a regime which provides much more balance and much more opportunity for small businesses to bring on new employees. It is highly likely that one of the things we will see is an increase in small business employment over the coming two years. That is an extremely good thing, something which will provide new opportunities and new jobs for people who would otherwise have not been able to get them. That reform is critical.

The second reform that I want to focus on is that there is more that could be done to provide investment incentive. There was a critical step taken to encourage venture capital investment through appropriate vehicles in this year’s budgetary measures. Longer term additional steps that could be taken to encourage investment should be considered in the capital gains tax regime. Whether that means a stepped capital gains tax over the coming years in relation to the length of holdings with consideration for longer term holdings or an expansion of support for those who wish to invest in first stage venture capital enterprises, both of those are important incentives. We have the potential to have one of the best venture capital regimes in the developed world, we have the people and we have the right business climate, but if we can take that additional step over the coming years, that would be an important further progression along the path.

The third area relates to my own portfolio responsibilities. We do have to look at major reforms in the energy sector. We have seen that there has been a significant addition in capacity as a result of some of the energy reforms of the 1990s at state level. There are still barriers within New South Wales which flow from the current ownership structures and system for energy ownership in New South Wales but in our utilities and our energy market we need to consider the steps forward here. In particular, there has been discussion of late about Australia’s role in the global nuclear cycle. I do not shy away from the fact that the global nuclear cycle is important in energy provision. If we can contribute to that through the export of uranium, that is an important role. For the Australian economy, if we are able to expand our opportunities for mining and export of uranium then that is a very important contribution we can make to the development of China and India as well as taking the pressure off global energy markets in other areas.

There is more that can be done and I have talked with my colleagues in relation to the provision of alternative energy resources in Australia. By that I mean different forms of renewables and incentives to encourage wind, solar and, in particular, thermal options—thermal energies such as the Cooper Basin and hot dry rocks which, by some accounts, have the capacity to provide the equivalent amount of energy addition to Australia as the Snowy Mountains scheme. Those options, together with the need to introduce clean coal technology, that are where our energy future lies. We have to develop a much more established clean coal technology. We have to take account of the greenhouse impact but, if we can do that, if we can establish a clean coal base and a revolution in the way in which this is used, it will mean that our fundamental energy reserves are utterly viable, not just for 30 or 50 years but for 200 years.

Today I met with a major firm that talked about the capacity to reduce the greenhouse footprint over the coming 10 to 15 years by 50 per cent through clean coal technology. That is a fundamental change that we need to make. It has an impact on the viability of our country in terms of energy. It means that our best reserves can be preserved, but a combination of contributing to the global nuclear energy cycle, of developing alternative renewable sources in Australia and of making our current system of coal usage much more viable through clean coal technology is the way in which we need to step forward. So for all of those reasons, this is an outstanding budget but I have outlined, in particular, the steps that we need to take as major reforms for Australia over the coming 10 years.

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