Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by saying I think it's wonderful that we have a member of the House here who says they represent people who pour beers. As somebody who's pulled beers in their past, I think it's an important part of the Australian story: beer, and pulling it and drinking it. But central to that is to create jobs and economic opportunity for the next generation of Australians. We have a challenging reality right now, and unfortunately the Australian Bureau of Statistics is not a friend of the current government when it comes to unemployment data, as we have seen. Unemployment is on this upward trajectory, which is normally not a very good sign for Australians who want to get ahead and want to get their first foot on the economic ladder of this nation.

But it's not just about getting a job. It's actually about getting a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. And of course we know there is a lived reality in this country.

There is a per capita recession where Australians are working harder, and it does not matter how hard they work; they are not getting ahead. It doesn't matter what the aggregate data says. It doesn't matter what the speeches from the opposition say. It is not achieving the objective and the lived reality of Australians. There is a simple reason for this, and this has been established by international benchmarks; it's not just something that the opposition is raising. Australia has had the biggest drop in household income in the developed world since 2022, which happens to coincide uniquely by chance with the election of the Albanese government.

The Albanese government, despite its boasts and despite the incredible amount of public expenditure, has not actually seen a real and material lift in household income in this country. Instead, people have experienced decline through stagnation—and, of course, we know the curse of inflation that has been there. We are all happy of course to see any change off those peaks, but there is a reality that is not translating to rising standards of living. So what we're seeing from the Albanese government is a gold medal for the collapse in household income. When we saw the members of the 1980 Olympic team in parliament this week and celebrated their incredible achievements, it was not for the Labor Party to mimic it and seek to get a gold medal in declines in household income collapse, but that is the lived reality that Australians are experiencing.

We also, of course, have the reality for small businesses. Again, aggregate data disguises and covers the lived reality. We have the biggest number of collapses in insolvencies for small businesses in Australian history. I notice that the opposition has suddenly gone very silent. I do understand their pause for thought on this. I would be taking pause for thought on this, because sitting behind every small business isn't just a number; it is, at the same time, a lost opportunity. It's people's livelihoods—their houses, investments, security, hopes and dreams—not just on the line but now falling off a cliff. It is a national tragedy.

Of course, as soon as I pointed out their silence, they were spirited back to life. They were spirited back to life because they wanted to defend their legacy, but their legacy is nothing but shameful. It is a disgrace to ever want to celebrate, as they seem to have just done, the decline of small businesses in this country. Sitting behind that are real people who have backed themselves and want to give economic opportunity for themselves, their family and, of course, the next generation of Australians. So many of those small-business people hold the assets that they need to thrive in their superannuation.

What we see now is the Treasurer coming with a tax that nobody voted for—the dead hand of the tax office after unrealised capital gains on people's family savings. And this family savings tax that is directly attacking small businesses, and once on superannuation will move over to other things like businesses and trusts, is coming after the Australian people. Even at his new summit, we know he's proposing new taxes that no-one else has voted for as well. (Time expired)

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