Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the amendments from the member for Warringah: as much as I think the instant asset tax write-off should be lifted much higher, the reality is that, leading into this election, we have to have all our costings put up front. We want to make sure our budget is better than the current government's, and that's why we decided to lift it to $30,000 and make it permanent. As a former small-business owner and a former contractor, and someone who worked in trades for 15 years, I understand the value of the instant asset tax write-off; I think a lot of the coalition do.

In relation to the member for Kooyong, I've got no idea what she's talking about. An attack on tradies wanting to use utes? You've got to be kidding me! I used to run a pest control business and I had nine pest controllers, and every single one of them had a dual cab ute or an extra cab ute that they used for work. If they take their family off in that dual cab ute on the weekend, off to lunch or something—you want to reduce that; is that right? Is that what you want to do for the people of Kooyong and right around Australia? The ute is a genuine tax deduction, and I can guarantee you one thing: if I'm Assistant Treasurer we won't be getting rid of tax-free thresholds and any sort of deduction on utes, that is for sure. I challenge the member for Kooyong to go out and talk to the tradies in her electorate—or perhaps we'll get Amelia Hamer to go out and talk to the people in her electorate. It's an outrageous suggestion. It is a slur on everyone who drives a ute to say, 'This is some sort of tax dodge to have a ute.' It just shows how out of touch some of these members in this place are. That is definitely one of the worst amendments I've seen in 12 years in this place. That someone would stand up and say something like that is a slur on every tradie, every bricklayer, every builder and every person that works in the offices for those companies. It's wrong.

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