Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the Treasurer said in his budget speech last night, the 2021-22 budget is designed to secure Australia's economic recovery. This budget, and the economic plan which underpins it, will continue to set the right environment for the creation of more jobs. It's on this point that I will probably irritate a lot of my colleagues, who have been referring to the creation of jobs and that we want to create jobs. We are, in fact, a government that likes to create the environment for others to create jobs, so I'm just being a little pedantic here. Eight out of 10 jobs in Australia are actually found in private enterprise, so our view, as a government, is not only being one of lower taxes and smaller government but also one which creates the right environment so that other people can thrive and, in the case of employment, create jobs for others. That's what we want to do.

Rather than focus on what the alleged gaps are in this budget, let's look at what this budget does in terms of our values and what we're seeking to do in Australia. The first of those is that it provides tax relief for more than 10 million hardworking Australians so that they have more money in their pockets to spend in the way that they want to spend it. In my electorate of Curtin 73,000 people last year benefited from tax cuts, and 52,000 people are going to benefit from the tax cuts being introduced this year. This is helping all of those people in my electorate to make the choices that we know that they can make and to spend money in the way that they want to, hopefully, by buying Australian, buying locally made and supporting all of our great businesses.

Another thing that this government is doing to make sure that we're creating the right environment for more jobs is supporting small and medium-sized businesses. Having more jobs is our goal. Having more jobs means more tax is collected, and it allows us to provide essential services. Throughout COVID, the initiatives that we put in place supported over 25,000 small businesses in my electorate. Those initiatives, which are continuing through this budget, are, again, going to support those small and local businesses in my electorate. Around 25,000 businesses are going to be able to write off the full value of any eligible asset they purchase, and about 12,000 businesses are going to be able to use the extended carry-back measure to support cash flow and confidence.

Rather than creating jobs and employing people, we are investing in giving people the opportunities to develop further skills and training so that they can go out and seek other job opportunities. The expanded JobTrainer Fund is going to support 163,000 new training places. An additional 163,000 people are going to be able to upskill. They are going to be able to go out and search for jobs in areas that they might not be qualified to work in at the moment. There are also going to be 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships. Once again, this will create an environment for people to go out, seek employment and get new skills. We have 680 apprenticeships in Curtin. I'm sure that, with these new measures, we'll have a whole lot more people seeking apprenticeships and traineeships over the coming year.

Another thing that our government does, as opposed to employing people and becoming a direct employer of people, is invest in infrastructure. By investing in infrastructure and putting things out to tender, we get companies and local businesses benefitting from major infrastructure projects. I don't particularly get excited by road infrastructure, but $1. 6 billion is being spent on infrastructure in Western Australia, and I am excited about it. It will make all of those road trips to get home to your families safer and smoother, which is really important.

This government is also making it easier for people to get more hours. For those parents who need to access child care to take on additional work, this government is investing an additional $1.7 billion into child care. This is going to directly benefit about 1,100 families in Curtin, by helping them take on more work. I know a number of them who have reached out to me over the last couple of months will be pleased with this initiative.

Essentially, our government is one that wants to support people to make their own choices. We want to create the environment for jobs. We want to create the environment for others to actually get out there and do things, to start their businesses and employ people, and for people feel confident to go ahead.

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