Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

This motion really asks us to close our eyes, divorce ourselves from reality and just believe whatever tropes they continually repeat as if they're facts. This isn't a Dr Seuss story; this is serious public policy. When we talk about the impact on small business, it's worth reflecting on what the changes actually are. A $20,000 instant asset write-off has been made permanent, which means that when you're buying important goods to run your business you get that write-off right away and not over a period of time. We have a permanent two-year loss carry back for companies with a turnover of up to $1 billion, helping businesses get back to profit during the tough times. We're introducing loss refundability—particularly important for start-ups in their first two years—which essentially means that the taxman isn't winning while new businesses are struggling to have the capital they need to continue and thrive. This is very much focused on encouraging productive investment, supporting those small businesses that are doing the grunt work, trying something new and building it from scratch. We're also progressing a new innovative business CGT discount, providing that 50 per cent CGT discount to early-stage investors, founders, employee shareholders and the like who are involved in innovative startup businesses.

When you're listening to the coalition's rhetoric, you'd almost believe that people have never had it so good. 'The tax system is perfect just the way it is'—that is more divorced from reality than even they would normally be in this chamber. The housing system is broken. The CGT arrangements are a perverse distortion of markets and have operated to the detriment of young people for two generations. It was time to make a change. We were not going to go out and look at the young people and say, 'You've never had it so good.' That was a lie; the system was not working for them. It wasn't working for the vast majority of Australians. So who was the system working for? Almost no-one.

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