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

Well, I would sit down if we put the bill. You are going to get up after me. The member interjecting has a lot of hide, because he will get up after me and he will be wasting the time of this parliament when we could have these bills done. What hypocrisy and what irony.

This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where you actually get to show your real colours. We do not need to hear from you. We do not need to hear from all the other Liberals. In fact, let's vote on it right now. Let's get it done. Let's pass these bills. I am just going to grab the speaking list here and have a little bit of a look. I have done a quick summation of how long it will take for the parliament to get through this speaking list—22 days of this government just bleating and yelling at small business: more uncertainty, breaking more confidence down. And the government is not in a hurry to pass these bills; they are just not in a hurry. There are eight hours worth of speakers on this list. We are not going to get through this today. We are not going to get through this tomorrow. We are not going to get through it this week.

Such is this government's urgency to have these bills passed that we are probably not going to get to them for another fortnight. That is how urgent it is. For 22 days Tony Abbott has been standing up every day and saying: 'Oh, the uncertainty; oh, the worry of small business. They must be just so worried and uncertain that perhaps Labor won't pass these bills through parliament. How can people get up in the morning? Small businesses have risked their mortgage and their lives. We need to give them certainty.' Well, I agree. Labor agrees. Labor will pass these bills. In fact, we will do it today. If you want to get the certainty through the House of Reps today, let's get it in the parliament. Let's decide. We can do that today. Let's just cut this short. I am happy to speak for all of my time, and I know everyone in this place will be as well. But I think a lot has actually been said about small business. It certainly was when Labor was in government, because we did some real things for small business—something that the government has only just discovered. The Liberals have only just discovered this instant asset write-off. It has been around for a little while. In fact, it was Labor's policy, Labor's initiative. It was what Labor put in place. That is what we did when we got to government. We did not go making a great big song and dance about it and carrying on. We knew what had to be done. We had to work hard in a difficult time, a global financial crisis. We wanted to support small business, we wanted to support the economy and we wanted to support jobs, because Labor understands that there is no greater certainty in life than having work.

Look at our record on jobs and unemployment during a time of great difficulty. The global financial crisis was very real and had an enormous impact right across Europe and the United States and here at home in Australia. But Labor stood up and did the things that needed to be done: underpinning jobs, underpinning growth and making sure that small businesses did not close their doors—and they did not. We did that through a whole heap of measures, including—wait for it—instant asset write-off. Why did we do that? Because it was really important. You would have thought that at the time Liberals, in opposition—being the bastion of small business; they love small business and are the best friend of small business—would have supported it. Who cares who put it to parliament, whether it was Labor of Liberal? I do not care who put it to parliament; it needed to be done. But what did the Liberals do in opposition? They voted against the small business package then. They spoke against it. In fact, now Minister Bruce Billson, who was then in opposition, spoke against it. Just recently Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, detailed some of the quotes of the minister shaking his head and saying, 'Oh, this is bad; oh, this is no good.' Well, how is it any different from what is before the parliament right now?

So, I would ask that we not spend the rest of the day—and we will not get to it today. Question time is at two o'clock, and the day must come to an end at some point. We have eight hours worth of speakers, and there is a long list of Liberal speakers who want to speak. Well, good on you; congratulations. And they want to hear 'congratulations', so let me say it again: Labor will support these bills. Congratulations for introducing something that was well and truly overdue, because you did such a bad job on your first budget, Joe Hockey and the Liberals, such a bad job. You destroyed so much confidence. You did so much damage. You had to lift your socks and do something. Well, I would have been glad if I had seen a new idea. That would have been really good—something new.

But I am not too worried about whether the Liberals come up with new ideas or old ideas, as long as they are good ideas. Isn't that what is important, good ideas? Let's support the good ideas. I do not care who has put them forward; I will support them, and Labor will support them. That is what we are saying here today. That is what we are doing. Labor is not standing up and doing what is expected or what the Liberal opposition did, which was vote against it not because it was anything bad or wrong but just because it was a Labor idea. Well, here is the chance to turn the tables today. The Liberal government now gets a chance to vote for its own small business budget measures. We say, let's do it. Let's put it to the parliament immediately, because Tony Abbott is running out there every day scaring small business, creating more uncertainty—22 days of it, we have had. For 22 days we have had Tony Abbott come into this place, go outside and talk to small business, saying: 'We've got this great package that will do you so much good,' but 'The uncertainty— the worry, the fear that maybe Labor will not pass these bills.' For 22 days we have said we will pass these bills.

This is day 23. Let us pass the bills. Labor supports the small-business-package bills, every single one of them. Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Measures No. 1) Bill 2015: Labor supports it and will pass it, and we will do it immediately. If the government had half a brain, the next speaker would get up there and say, 'Thank you. Let's get on with and pass these bills,' and give the certainty that the Liberals keep telling small business they need. Let us give them that certainty.

Labor will support these bills. Put the bills to the parliament. Test us. Test Labor that we will support these bills. Will support. We will support Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Measures No. 1) Bill 2015. We will support these bills. Why won't the government? You cannot have it both ways. Generally, in life, that is how things go. You cannot come into the parliament, create more uncertainty and lack of confidence in our economy, telling small-business people they have this fantastic package coming, but then make sure you create uncertainty. Accountants are telling their small-business clients, 'We're not sure. Just in case, don't go doing anything yet. Just wait. We're uncertain. We're not confident about this, because Tony Abbott is telling everybody that this just might not pass parliament. This might not get through.'

Let us end the uncertainty. Let us not have this charade, this farce, of the government saying that somehow this bill will not pass. Let us pass them today. Let us get on with it today. What hypocrisy, what irony, what embarrassment. How can this mob, how can the Liberals stand here and look people in the eye, small-business people, who will be asking them: 'Why didn't you do it today? Why wait and delay for one more day?'

What is the strategy? What is the cunning plan? What is the strategic advancement for small business to not have the certainty today? It can be done today. Given the certainty, let us pass it here. Labor will support it. Labor will support these bills. Labor supports small business. Labor will support the budget measures it contains for small business. Why is it that this government is the only one not supporting it?

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