Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can only make the sweeping assumption that the last version is the one that you settled on. Again, like most pieces of legislation brought by this government last time, it was some thought bubble brought up on the back of—heaven forbid!—someone making a profit. Those on the other side of the House will always have socialists who make the point that 'profit' is a dirty word, and anyone who makes a profit must be evil.

Later on during my speech I will make a particular note of the comparative tax rates of our mining sector here in Australia—the sovereign risk issues—and how we compare with other mining investments right around the world. We need to be competitive as a nation. I do not believe it for one moment when the member who spoke before me—the member for Charlton—spoke about going into a small business and that they were devastated they had lost their tax benefit. Did he manage to bring up the bit about the superannuation with them, because it is small business that actually paid the increase?

When this bill was brought before the House, the government was spruiking about the increase in superannuation. All economic theorists agree that superannuation does need to go up—absolutely. With cost-of-living pressures, it does need to go up. But it needs to go up in a way which is sustainable. It is no good speaking to someone in the street who is unemployed. This is where it is going to get to, if you speak to someone in the street who is unemployed: 'Mate, what do you do for a living?' He will say, 'I'm unemployed. But I tell you what, if I was working I would get 12 per cent.' It is better to have a job and to be picking up your nine per cent and let your business grow for a couple of years. We, as a conservative government—the true party of small business—will come to the rescue of business and save them, as only we can and as the history books tell us that we do.

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