Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

To assist the House—I am perfectly happy to talk about the mistruths, the broken promises and all of the other ways in which the Labor Party are severely allergic to what the Australian people can see staring them in the face, which is, of course, the fact that they have been betrayed by a prime minister who looked down the barrel of the camera before the election and said, 'I am a man you can trust because my word is my bond.' The fact that Labor MPs in this place are now running a protection racket for this prime minister, whose integrity has been shredded by his own deceit of the Australian people, is a matter that they will be held to account for at the ballot box.

But I return to the story of Ian, who, as I said, founded his first business with $3,000 in the bank after being made redundant. For the first five years, he paid himself a salary of $80,000 a year, which was his sole income, whilst his wife was welcoming young sons into the family. After five years in business, he was the lowest paid employee in his own business. It was hard financially, he wrote to me. It was hard on his wife. It was hard on their relationship. It was stressful, and he was regularly physically unwell from anxiety and stress. But his goal was to shift the future for his family and ensure that one day they would enjoy financial freedom. That is the story of how so many Australians have become successful, and, indeed, it's something that we on this side of the chamber want to see into the future.

He wrote to me that across his business they now generate literally millions of dollars in tax every year—across PAYG, GST, payroll tax, fringe benefits tax and company tax. Governments, both state and federal, are the largest benefactors of his business, receiving far more in tax than the profit that he and his wife are left with as business owners.

His business was structured in accordance with the advice of a local Bunbury accountant. They hold shares in a trust and distribute some of the dividends that they receive through to his wife. The structure is legal. It was established within the rules, and they pay significant tax, as we discussed earlier. His wife, Ian wrote to me, has been by his side the whole time, riding the highs and lows, supporting both him and their boys through this entire time, which, as I mentioned, included the tragic loss of one of their sons at the age of five to cancer. So the changes that are proposed by this government, which were, of course, not mentioned before the election—in fact, quite the opposite. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer repeatedly promised Australians that they would not change these tax settings. These changes mean that Ian and his wife face an assault on the aspiration with which they built their business.

Having turned 40 and looking to a better future, Ian and his wife were considering selling the business that they've invested heavily in for over a decade, sacrificed and saved for and paid an untold price for through stress and anxiety and all of the pitfalls that go with being a business owner in a volatile, modern economy. But the government now tells them that their fair share needs to somehow be carved up, with taxes on aspiration that leave he and his wife angry, frustrated and feeling betrayed after 13 years of sacrifice and playing by the rules. Somehow this Prime Minister seems unable to tell the Australian people what his plans are until after an election, when suddenly those solemn promises he made 50 times can be broken.

I know they're allergic to the L word over there, so we can use every other word for it. But Australians like Ian and his wife know what's going on here. They can see it and they are angry. That's why we on the coalition side will be voting against these sorts of outrageous taxes. This assault on aspiration and this raid on the pockets of Australians are simply because this is a government that has run out of money. And when they run out of money, they come after yours. That's exactly what Ian and his wife have seen, and their story, unfortunately, is far from unique. Ian wrote that he was unsure whether other people from—

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00

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