Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Well, I listened with interest to the answers to the questions from coalition senators. I think the one thing that the government failed to address in all of the questions was that was that this is the highest taxing government in Australia's history. This government wants us to believe that taxing shares, taxing small businesses and taxing ETFs is somehow going to make housing more affordable. What is a little bit more egregious than that in itself is that they want to take away tax concessions from young Australians who are using those other avenues to build wealth so they can enter the housing market. They're taking those avenues away even though, historically, generations before them have been able to use those levers. This government is calling that intergenerational equity. It is a total falsity. It is a total lie. Nobody believes it.

They couldn't answer questions around which small businesses would be eligible for the proposed carve-outs. They don't know. They have no answers for that. This is the problem with this government: they go ahead, they do things, they don't think about it—poorly executed, poorly drafted legislation—and then it needs to be cleaned up later. Nobody knows who's going to be eligible and who is not. What will an innovative small business be? We had questions around a cafe and a hairdresser effectively scoffed by the government. They're legitimate questions; they're real questions. Who determines what innovation is? Is it a departmental official? Do they determine it? Is it subjective? Is it what they think is innovative, or is it something that somebody else will determine? They're reasonable questions.

What it does create is uncertainty. When there is uncertainty, people won't invest. When there is uncertainty, people move somewhere else where there is no uncertainty. Based on this legislation, we will have some of the highest CGT in the world. Communist China has a flat rate of 20 per cent CGT. Australians who want to innovate and create new businesses, to have a shot at making something special are probably going to go: 'We might go to New Zealand instead. That's easier.'