Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bragg for the question. Certainly with the release of today's national accounts we continue to see the resilience of the Australian economy. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the coalition government have been focused on protecting the lives and livelihoods of Australians. As I've said in this place before, and certainly as the former small business minister, small businesses continue to do it tough. Many are in and out of lockdown. We just need to look to New South Wales, Victoria and here now in the ACT. This of course continues to create uncertainty for them.

That is why, in terms of the policies we as a government are putting in place, we provided in the budget this year an additional $20.7 billion in tax relief to businesses over the next four years. This includes the extension of the immediate expensing measure, and that is helping around 99 per cent of businesses in Australia to reinvest back into their businesses. As Senator Bragg knows, we as a government understand that there are some businesses that have that capacity to reinvest. We want those businesses to be able to access government policy to do exactly that: prosper, grow, invest in their business and create more jobs for Australians.

But we also recognise that many businesses continue to face uncertainty, in particular in terms of lockdowns. That is why we have worked with the states and the territories, through the national cabinet, to provide temporary, targeted grants to small and family businesses to assist them to get through the lockdowns and to assist them in relation to the impacts of the lockdowns. We've gone further in our policies by expanding our small and medium-size business loan scheme, and certainly this has been appreciated by the business community. (Time expired)