Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline for the House the importance of spreading the opportunities of the mining boom to create jobs right across our country.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for that very important question, because in the next 24 hours every member of this chamber will have the opportunity to stand up for working families and for small businesses in their electorate. If they do not, they will simply abandon them to cheap politics. Putting in place the MRRT is the way in which we can spread the opportunities of the mining boom to every corner of our country. It is a way in which we can ensure the resources the Australian people own 100 per cent are spread right around our country instead of just being sent overseas to overseas shareholders. This is a way in which all Australians share in the bounty of the mining boom. That is very important because it goes to the essence of what we are on about in this chamber and that is the creation of jobs in Australia. There is nothing that we on this side of the House are prouder of than the fact that we have created, over the past four years, 750,000 jobs in this country. We are proud of that. It is in our DNA. That is what the electorates send us here for—to put in place job creation.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Your DNA's Work Choices.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Their DNA is Work Choices and ripping off working Australian families. That is in their DNA.

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer has the call.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no greater engine room of jobs in our economy than small businesses. We have 2.7 million small businesses in this country and they employ a lot of Australians. Putting in place the $6,500 instant asset write-off is a big job generator for small business and a big job generator for our economy. If those opposite vote against a $6,500 instant asset write-off, that will be a very dark day for those in the party of Menzies who think they stand for small business—the party that Mr Menzies described as standing for the strivers, the planners and ambitious small businesses. That is where we stand on this side of the House. We stand for the strivers, the planners and those with ambition in our economy. That is why we stand for a significant tax cut to small business. But it is a measure of how negative those opposite have become. It is a measure of how far they will go to wreck sensible policy proposals that they could oppose a tax cut for small business. We on this side of the House also stand for working Australians and a big boost to their superannuation funded by the profits of 20 or 30 superprofitable mining companies and, by and large, supported by the mining companies.

The Leader of the Opposition gave a speech last night about economic policies. I would call it the magic pudding speech. He claimed he had fiscal discipline and then announced he was going to abolish a tax paid by the 20 most profitable companies in the country. He wants to spend more, save less and have bigger surpluses. That is a magic pudding and it shows how unqualified and unfit for office those opposite are.