Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer remind the House of the Morrison government's strong and enduring support for small businesses around Australia, including in my electorate of Reid, as we move towards implementing the national plan, and is the Treasurer aware of any threats to small business as they struggle through the effects of the pandemic?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for her question and acknowledge her strong support for small business across her community. I had the privilege to join with her to visit Schibello Coffee in her electorate, who were accessing the immediate expensing provisions which are helping them invest and grow their own business. The Morrison government, from day one of this pandemic, has been seeking to support small- and medium-sized businesses. The cash flow boost—we've passed legislated and legislative tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses. We put in place an expanded immediate expensing provision, the loss carry back measure, as well as concessional loans, and this has helped contribute to a fall in the unemployment rate to 4.6 per cent, a 12-year low. But now we have a desperate Labor Party that is seeking to destroy a fundamental pillar of our tax system, namely, the protection of private taxpayers' confidential information—private taxpayers' confidential information! Now, the Labor Party is seeking to force the tax commissioner to dump in the Senate—

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Whitlam will cease interjecting.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the details of more than 10,000 businesses. This is what the tax commissioner has said about Labor's proposal: It will 'harm the public interest by undermining public confidence in his ability to keep taxation information confidential.' This is what the Australian Hotels Association has said of Labor's proposal: 'It's a dangerous political stunt.' Here is what the Australian Industry Group has said of Labor's proposal: 'It's misguided and a dangerous precedent that must be rejected.' Here is what the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said about Labor's proposal: 'It's a deliberate attempt to smear.' This is what the council of small business has said about Labor's proposal: 'It's been pursued for political gain.'

At the last election, Australians knew that the Labor Party came after retirees and homeowners. Well, this election, they're coming after small business. This election, they're coming after small business, and, if the Labor Party is prepared to stoop this low to force the tax commissioner to reveal private taxpayers' confidential information, whose information will they seek to have provided next to the parliament? These businesses were complying with the law. These businesses were receiving government support in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic. And, for that, the Labor Party is coming after them.