Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a farcical performance from the young and inexperienced member for Prospect. I can understand why some small businesses, when listening to his words, would say, ‘Where has this silly young boy been?’ I rise to support the Tax Laws Amendment (Simplified GST Accounting) Bill 2007, not because the coalition is the best friend that small business has ever had; it is the only friend in this parliament that small business has had. Why? We only need to look at Labor’s record. We have had past leaders of the Labor Party saying, ‘We don’t even pretend to be the party of small business’—their own words. We have had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition defaming and inaccurately condemning a small motel business only in the last two weeks, ruining a very successful family business and causing it much havoc by incorrectly making claims in this chamber about its workplace relations affairs. And there was no apology. That is the sort of relationship that the Labor Party has with small business.

Small businesses cannot be fooled. They have seen what the Labor Party does. They remember interest rates of over 20 per cent. In the heyday of the Keating government, some were paying 24 per cent. Small businesses in rural and regional Australia remember that. Small businesses are the backbone of rural and regional Australia. They also remember that this party has said it is not the party of small business—they have never pretended to be, although under Kevin Rudd they pretend to be everything. They are such a confected and false party and they are trying to hoodwink the Australian electorate with their thin veneer of care and concern. That is all on the record.

My comments on the bill will be brief. The bill makes important refinements to the taxation system as it stands for small business. This bill foreshadows a suite of measures to make life easier for small businesses in meeting their tax obligations. It amends the GST legislation to allow simplified accounting methods for more Australian small businesses and other entities, thus allowing them to reduce compliance costs, red tape and bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Through this legislation, the government will again assist the small business sector to reduce business compliance costs and will assist industry to better comply with their obligations under the GST. In fact, this is an extension of the range of entities and businesses that have been able to access simplified accounting methods. The measures announced in the budget included an increase in the GST registration turnover threshold to $75,000, which means that, from 1 July 2007, businesses with an annual turnover of less than $75,000 will not be required to register for GST purposes. In addition, the legislation increases the GST threshold to $75 before the requirement that businesses obtain a tax invoice to claim an input tax credit for a purchase kicks in. This threshold currently sits at $50.

Importantly, the bill expands the simplified accounting arrangements for GST to extend them to more small businesses. Entities with an annual turnover of $2 million will be able to access such concessions. It will allow them to use the simplified method of GST calculation should it suit their requirements. As we know, small businesses make up 95 per cent of all Australian businesses. They are the engine room of the Australian economy, generating growth and employment opportunities for Australians. They have been at the forefront, assisting the reduction of unemployment—most recently to record lows of 4.2 per cent and, in Indi, to under five per cent. As the product of a small business family and environment myself, I know how important this sector is in my own electorate, across the country and in regions in generating income and opportunities for Australians.

We remember the Labor Party’s form and their attitude to small business and we remember a former Leader of the Opposition who said—and let us not allow the opposition to forget the immortal words of one of their former leaders—that the Labor Party had never pretended to be a small business party. Can it get any simpler than that? No, it cannot. An even more recent Leader of the Opposition said that he could legislate the GST out of Australia. The current Leader of the Opposition spoke of the introduction of the GST as a ‘fundamental injustice’ back in 1999, in one of those ridiculous, gobbledegook, theoretical speeches that did very little to contribute to law-making and the development of policy in this place.

Talk to the states and territories, who are swimming in record amounts of GST. I am sure they will be queuing up before the Leader of the Opposition in the event that he is elected as Prime Minister of this nation. If he is elected, I am sure they will be begging him for more money and perhaps even begging him for an increase in the GST threshold. That would be possible in a situation where you have wall-to-wall state Labor governments and a national Labor government. In that instance, the leader of the Labor Party will be played like a very fine fiddle. He will be played like a patsy by the state Labor leaders because of his inexperience and he will not be able to say no to them. He wants to be everyone’s friend in every single circumstance—unless the cameras stop rolling and we really get to see the sort of person he is.

I note the astonishing and quite extraordinarily claim made by the member for Prospect, who spoke before me, that the legislation is an adoption of Labor’s policy. What an absolute joke. This is the party that refuse to release a tax policy before the election. They claim not to be the party of small business yet now claim credit for this package of measures to assist small businesses to meet their GST obligations. We cannot take them seriously—not the member for Prospect nor any of the other members. In the same vein, they claim credit for all the positive economic indicators that have recently increased and become more apparent in the last few months. They claim in fact that former Labor Prime Minister Mr Paul Keating is directly responsible for these outstanding economic figures. They just cannot bring themselves to admit what everyone in Australia knows, which is as plain as can be—that the hard economic decisions of reform undertaken by this government have ensured an environment within which small, medium and large businesses can operate and create jobs. But then again, Paul Keating, their hero, was also the man who said that if you were not living in Sydney you were camping out. So much for a positive message to businesses in rural and regional Australia.

Everyone knows that the opposition are an economic rabble. They will return this country to the bad old days of mismanagement. Australia cannot afford a Labor government led by an inexperienced theoretical novice who cannot stand up to vocal state premiers. If his speech in reply to the budget is anything to go by, the Leader of the Opposition only believes in a tax cut for foreigners. He announced a $15 million tax cut in withholding tax for foreigners which would actually cost $100 million. That is all we have heard from the Labor Party on tax reform—certainly nothing for small business, which this legislation importantly addresses.

I commend the Treasurer for this bill, the announcement of which was made in this year’s budget. These are sensible and effective measures to improve Australia’s taxation system. They are reasonable, and it is a commonsense approach to enhance the tax regime and compliance, particularly as they impact on small business. I commend the bill to the House.

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