Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Oxley remarked about people listening to this debate. Mr Deputy Speaker, if they were, I think they changed frequencies a long time ago. That would have to be one of the driest contributions I have heard about a bill that is so important not only for a number of aspects of the Australian economy but in particular for small business, which is my focus. There are many aspects and schedules to the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 2) Bill 2009 and I intend to confine my comments to those aspects that deal with small business and in particular the fact that this bill will make a number of concessions to ensure that there is some assistance provided to small business.

If you were to listen to those opposite you would believe that in some way this bill is the salvation of small business in Australia. In large part that is because this government is so completely derelict when it comes to support of Australia’s 2.4 million small businesses that employ about 3.8 million Australians. For the vast majority of those opposite the closest contact they have with small business in this country is when they walk into one to buy a coffee. That is the most connection that the vast majority of government members have to small businesses in this country. That is the reason why I am pleased to talk about some of the things that the coalition did when we were in government and to outline some of our proposals about what we would do today if we were in government. In large part it stands as a contribution in response to the member for Oxley, who suggested that in some way nothing had been done for 12 years. He could not be more wrong.

The fact is that the coalition does understand small business. Small business is the constituency of the coalition. The coalition understands small business—unlike those trade union hacks that sit on the government benches. There are a whole lot of them in the chamber now—and they are putting their hands up because they know. They went from university straight into the trade unions and from the trade unions straight into this chamber. Their knowledge of small business is nil. You say to one of them, ‘What can you tell me about PAYG instalments?’ and they look blankly back at you. They have got no idea what that means for small business. So no wonder that the member for Oxley stands up in this chamber, chest puffed out, claiming that in some way this bill is going to do so much for small business and highlights, as one of the great accomplishments of the Rudd Labor government, assistance to small business in this country. No wonder that is the case because, really, the cupboard is bare when it comes to small business policy.

We have seen, effectively, two announcements by the Rudd Labor government for the small business sector, the backbone of the Australian economy. There are 3.8 million Australians employed in the small business sector and there have been, effectively, two announcements. The first was the announcement with respect to PAYG instalment payments, which saw them reduced. The reason the Rudd Labor government did that was they copied the coalition’s policy. I put out a press release on this about a month or two prior to the announcement by the Prime Minister and the small business minister. The coalition was out there leading the way on PAYG changes to help small business at this time and, lo and behold, the government said, ‘Gee, that’s not a bad idea.’ You could have seen Kevin Rudd and Dr Emerson, the member for Rankin, sitting down and saying, ‘What are we going to do on small business? I have got no idea. We do not know what to do. What does the coalition propose? Well, Steve Ciobo on behalf of the coalition has put out a press release—let’s copy that.’ So that is what the Labor Party did with their first announcement.

The second announcement was put out by the Labor Party about their tax-effective investment allowance, and we have seen the Labor Party crowing about this proposal outlined in the budget. This was going to do so much to help Australian small businesses. That measure, like the one that is before the House today, will assist some small businesses—and there is no doubt about it; I am not going to pretend it does not. But the reality is that for the 93 per cent of Australian small businesses that are under cash flow stress, that announcement does nothing. And the reason that the announcement does nothing—and this is what Labor fails to understand—is you have got to have a dollar to spend a dollar. There is no point providing a tax-effective investment allowance increase to 50 per cent to encourage small businesses to spend if they do not have a dollar to spend or if they do not have access to credit. Labor just does not get it.

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