Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As you have outlined, I rise to speak today on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2020-2021, in particular to highlight some of the measures contained in the bill, including the appropriations to the Department of the Treasury, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other significant portfolio agencies. Obviously, we all know that, this year, the Australian economy has been hit catastrophically by COVID-19. The hit to our economy has been devastating in its nature. As was outlined in the budget forward estimates, we're expecting that unemployment will peak at eight per cent in the December quarter. The government has of course responded in an unprecedented way, with $299 billion worth of direct economic support measures to help cushion the blow and to save jobs and livelihoods.

The 2021 budget builds on this work that has been put in place throughout the year, delivering a number of key measures and programs to help propel the Australian economy through the recovery phase of the pandemic. Most notably, this includes the $74 billion JobMaker Plan. Of central relevance to the JobMaker Plan is the JobMaker hiring credit. This is a $4 billion program over three years, being administered through the ATO, to establish a hiring credit. A key component, as I said, of the JobMaker Plan, this hiring credit will encourage tens of thousands of Australian businesses to employ new staff. The money is payable for up to 12 months for employers who hire a recipient of the JobSeeker payment aged between 16 and 35. New hires under the scheme are required to work for at least 20 hours per week to be eligible, and the expectation, as outlined on budget night, is that the hiring credit will support around 450,000 positions for young people, helping them bounce back from the effects of the pandemic.

In my own portfolio of housing, the appropriations bill will also support budget measures designed to boost support for housing and to support jobs in the residential construction sector. In the budget, we've built on the great success of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which allows first home buyers to purchase their first home with a deposit of as little as five per cent. On budget night, we announced the creation of an additional 10,000 guarantees, up until 30 June 2021, which can be used by first home buyers to purchase a newly constructed home. This measure is not only supporting first home buyers, as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme has done so successfully, but also ensuring that those purchases fuel jobs in the residential construction industry. We believe that these measures, along with the $688 million HomeBuilder program—the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme measure in particular—will support a continued pipeline of activity.

Obviously tax reform was a significant component of the budget, with $17.8 billion in personal income tax relief to support the economic recovery. Of this, $12½ billion will be delivered in the next 12 months. Around 11.6 million individuals will receive a tax cut in this financial year, 2021, and Treasury estimates that it will create an additional 50,000 jobs by the end of 2021.

We've also put in place significant measures to support businesses to invest. As part of the Economic Recovery Plan, we've put in place temporary full expensing for businesses with turnover of less than $5 billion. This will of course improve cash flow for businesses and encourage those businesses to invest in productivity-enhancing and business-growing plant and equipment. We've also put in place temporary loss carry-back so as to ensure that, rather than having to wait years to get the benefit of their tax losses, if they do make it through the pandemic, businesses will be able to get access to the benefits of those tax losses immediately. We've also put in place superannuation reform and a range of other measures, all designed to get Australians back into work and to get businesses investing again.

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