My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer update the House on recent measures announced by the government to assist small business? How will these benefits provide real assistance to the businesses in my electorate of Cook and across Australia?

I thank the honourable member for Cook for his question. I can inform him that small business employs about 3.3 million Australians and is absolutely critical to the success of the Australian economy. In fact, in the last 10 years there has been a 12 per cent increase in the number of small businesses in this country. In the recent budget, the government announced a number of measures to assist small business further. One was increasing the assets test so that small business could get the advantage of capital gains tax rollover. They could get the 15-year exemption on capital gains tax and the retirement exemption. Another measure was cutting the incorporation fee from $800 to $400, at an estimated cost of $216 million over the next four years, to help small business with incorporation fees.

One of the major improvements for small business which this government announced in the budget was an improvement in the depreciation arrangements by increasing the diminishing value rate for depreciation from 150 per cent to 200 per cent. Let me give the House some examples of what this will do for small business. For a business acquiring a new truck worth $230,000, this budget announcement alone would give a benefit of $15,333 in the first year of ownership. In other words, the write-off, by increasing the diminishing value, would be of direct benefit to that small business. For a farmer acquiring a tractor worth $90,000, the change in the depreciation—the diminishing value depreciation rate—will give a benefit of $6,750 in the first year of ownership. These are very strong incentives for investment in new plant and equipment and they are real benefits.

I was thinking of these real benefits to small business as I was sitting in my Canberra flat last night, cold and alone.

Alone, yes; feeling unloved, yes; and watching Lateline, as I do, to cheer myself up. I saw the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations talking about the advantages to employees of $338 a week, if they were able to get a job in the retail sector. He held up the $338. It woke me up, Mr Speaker. He is a man of great financial acumen. I waited for the response from the Australian Labor Party. We had the member for Perth, who said:

... let me just respond, first of all, by making this point. My 2c trumps his Liberal Party fistful of dollars every day of the week because it’s illusory.

The $338 is illusory! And that took my mind back—

Mr Stephen Smith interjecting

Order! The member for Perth is warned!

to another payment of $600, of which when it was given to the families of Australia the Labor Party said—remember—that it wasn’t real, it didn’t exist. This is known as ‘rooster logic’. It started off with the member for Lilley, spreading like some kind of bird flu to the member for Perth. One of the symptoms of ‘bird flu’ is that you have delusional fits—speaking of which—

Mr Speaker—

Has the Treasurer completed his answer?

Government Members:

Government members—No!

Order! Members on my right!

Mr Speaker, a point of order on standing order 104, as you would be aware.

Has the Treasurer completed his answer? I call the Treasurer.

These are real benefits—real benefits for real people. They are real benefits on depreciation, they are real benefits on family tax benefits and they are real benefits in their wages. No amount of rooster logic will take away from the fact that this is real money, real benefits, to Australian people and they are delivered by the coalition government.

Mr Ticehurst interjecting

Order! The member for Dobell!

Mr Ticehurst interjecting

The member for Dobell is warned.