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

I want to thank everyone that's participated in today's CID, particularly the members for Fisher, Moncrieff and Curtin. What we've heard today—in particular, through questions from the member for Moncrieff—is in relation to small businesses and how we're supporting them. From 1 July small businesses in Australia will have a tax rate of 25 per cent—a significant achievement for small businesses throughout this country. This builds on the temporary full expensing that we put in place during the pandemic; the tax loss carry-back, which injects funds into businesses really quickly rather than having them wait years in some cases to recover those tax losses; and the patent box, which we announced in the budget. These are all measures to support businesses in Australia to invest, and, as I said in my initial remarks, we saw that lead to an unemployment rate of 5½ per cent. There are more people in jobs now than there were at the beginning of the pandemic.

I want to thank the member for Fisher for his great advocacy and support for the residential construction industry. He asked questions about how we continue to support them. We announced in the budget an additional 10,000 new home guarantees, a subset of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which encourages first homebuyers who want to purchase a home with a five per cent deposit guaranteed by the government and leads them to purchasing new homes, which, again, supports the residential construction industry. There were 500,000 jobs supported through HomeBuilder. Those jobs continue to be supported through the new home guarantee.

The member for Curtin asked questions about first home ownership. In extraordinary times we've seen first homebuyers at 155,000 to March—a 55 per cent increase on the long-term average. We see the number of first homebuyers at its highest level in nearly 15 years. The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which we put in place before the pandemic, has supported thousands of first homebuyers. We will continue to do so, with another 20,000 places released on 1 July—10,000 in the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and 10,000 in the New Home Guarantee. We announced a new program—the Family Home Guarantee, which supports single parents to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as two per cent. Some of them will be first home buyers. Many of them will be purchasing a home again, having perhaps lost a home in a family separation.

I thank everyone who has contributed to this debate. The fact that the Australian economy is the envy of the world isn't an accident; it's because of the policies we've put in place. We'll continue to do so.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 16:00

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