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

These changes are very much focused on supporting the small businesses that are supporting growth and productivity in our economy. There is a raft of reforms there to support small business, rather than using alliteration or simply saying, 'Oh, it's too hard to discuss the details, so we'll just come up with a rhyming phrase.' No, this is serious policy work and it requires serious conversations and—heaven forbid!—good faith engagement on the details of policy. Of course, my expectations have been tempered as I've continued to watch the coalition over the past year and a bit, but I think this is far too important to diminish into simple, childish slogans when there is actually a lot of really good stuff in this budget, and small businesses have made that very, very clear. Even those who don't agree with every aspect of the budget—and I accept that reasonable minds can differ—agree there is a lot of good stuff worthy of supporting in this budget, particularly for small business and particularly those startups that are creating jobs, trying new things and innovating. That's where we know that our productive capacity is really going to get that value.

We have not seen the tax system up to this point driving the kinds of productivity we as an economy need. We need to be rethinking the systems that have led to outcomes that we don't think are acceptable. So trying to do things a different way makes eminent sense because, if you're not married to the outcome, why would you marry the formula? It makes no sense. The tax system is changing to incentivise productivity and to also reward hard work. That's how the income tax changes are going to make a huge difference not only to employees but to the 1.5-plus million small businesses who make their income from the work that they do as well. The vast majority of small businesses are effectively workers; they're simply their own bosses. Most of their income comes from the income earned by the business and the wages they pay themselves. It's that day-to-day grunt work and profit that gets them going. It's not the massive windfall they get at the end of the business cycle. In fact, a very large share of businesses don't really make a lot of capital at all at the end of their business life because the person is the business; it is the work, productive engagement and economic activity which really drives the value. That's where the focus is. It's on productive gains and making sure that our economy is set up for future success by boosting productivity rather than focusing on rewarding passive ownership of existing housing, being a non-productive asset, and watching generations of Australians be excluded from the housing market.

I believe in aspiration. I believe that workers should be able to aspire to earn more and keep more of what they earn. I believe that families should be able to aspire to own a home to live in. Those are the things that this budget is focusing on. And so, when we see motions like this that are really just rank partisanship and quite divorced from reality, let's start with a basis of fact. What is in the budget and what is being said? They were referring before to certain taxes they'd made up. (Time expired)

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