Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The federal budget is having an immediate positive impact on the small businesses of my electorate of Hume. As I sat at the budget dinner with a table of small-business people from my electorate, they were straight on their phones—texting, talking and planning to spend money, to invest. This is exciting for me, as I am someone who has always believed in the power of small businesses to create jobs, to invest and to support our prosperity.

The government's Growing Jobs and Small Businesses package is about workable, practical measures to help small business. Included in that is a tax cut of 1.5 per cent for incorporated small businesses with turnover up to $2 million, while unincorporated small businesses will get a five per cent tax discount of up to a $1,000 a year. Having an immediate impact—and this is what we are seeing already—is that small businesses can now claim a tax deduction for each and every asset purchase up to $20,000. Six to eight weeks ago farmers in my electorate were saying, 'If you can give me an instant asset write-off on silos or water investments, I will go for it'—and that is exactly what we have delivered. These tax deductions do not stimulate just small individual businesses; they will stimulate all of the service providers and input providers that sell to them.

This budget has also invested in regional infrastructure as a sure-fire way of stimulating jobs and investment. In my electorate a $10 million grant, one of the largest grants in Australia out of the National Stronger Regions Fund, has been given to Goulburn to build a new wastewater facility. A vital new pipeline to carry water from Yass to Murrumbateman has been allocated $6.1 million, noting that Murrumbateman has remained on water restrictions since the year 2000.

The federal budget has delivered strong positive policy that will fan the sails of our regional economies. It strikes the right balance between stimulus and a responsible path back to surplus. We have said it time and time again: the real problem we faced when came into government was that spending under Labor had been going up far faster than income. Any small business owner who has been in that situation knows it is a problem—you have to fix it. That is what the coalition has been doing. We have further to go, but we are a long way down the track. When Labor wanted to stimulate the economy, it went out with big, centrally driven, mismanaged programs. We want small businesses to do the growing, not government programs. That is our clear philosophy. I have sometimes heard the passing comment: 'You are too optimistic about what small business can do for the economy'. I am here to say that I do not think I am optimistic enough. When small businesses start employing and investing, the sky is the limit.