Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) | Hansard source

I just wish to thank Senator Barbara Pocock for allowing me to jump ahead in the order due to other duties that I have to take on in the not-too-distant future. I did want to speak on this bill, because it is such a retrograde step for our taxation system. Since the budget was handed down, I have met with, visited with, gone to after hours events with and spoken with chambers of commerce and small businesses in Western Australia. Apart from the uncertainty that this Labor budget has generated, the one thing that I have heard universally from every single one of those businesses is that they have had to go and talk to their financial advisers and their accountants about what these changes mean for them. Think about the deadweight loss that is applying to the Australian economy. Then, just in the last few days, another dirty deal was done with the Greens, changing the rules from the budget once more, attacking self-managed super funds, often controlled by small-business people for whom it was the best way to invest for their future. They've changed the rules again. Now, every single one of those small businesses, plus a whole new raft of people involved in self-managed super funds, are going to have to go and seek advice from their professional service providers, from their accountants, from their fund managers or from their auditors. This is a deadweight loss on the economy that will, over time, thanks to this Labor government, add up to billions of dollars, because this is a Labor government that just cannot get enough of your taxation. It wants more and more and more. It is drunk on spending your money, and it is coming after even more of it.

We have already far too many definitions of 'small business' in this country. The ATO, the tax office—just one agency—has multiple small-business definitions. The Fair Work Act has a different definition for a small business. ASIC and the ACCC have a different definition again. The ABS has a different definition of a small business. There's different definition in the Privacy Act. There's a different definition for the Australian Financial Complaints Agency. Now this government is going to slice and dice small business once more in terms of taxation to say that there are innovative small businesses over here who deserve one tax treatment and non-innovative small businesses over there that deserve a different tax treatment. Every small business in Australia, every business, is going to have to work out whether they fall into one category or another.

I've heard those opposite—and I'm not talking about those up at the far end of the chamber; I'm talking about those in government, the Labor Party—talking about how mining is just digging it up and shipping it out. Mining in my home state of Western Australia is not just digging it up and shipping it out. It is a highly technical, highly innovative business, ranging from the smallest of businesses in Australia to the largest. These are businesses that contribute enormously to the Australian economy. These are businesses that, in my opinion, are the foundation of the Australian economy. These are the businesses from which wealth flows. But this government's budget is putting a cap on our desire to aspire to wealth generation. They're attempting to force everything to their mindset, to their union dominated mindset, of how people should live, generate wealth and get ahead in life. This is not what Australians want. This is what the union movement wants. They want big businesses they can control, not small businesses that are flexible, dynamic, innovative and hard for the unions to sink their teeth into.

These two bills that we are discussing are yet another two bills that are being added to the shameless list of guillotined bills that have been pushed through this place under the Labor government and 99 per cent of the time with the support of the Greens. The Liberal Party has supported a couple of important defence and national security measures going through under a guillotine. But 99 per cent of the more than 100 bills that have been guillotined by this government have been supported by the Greens. I may have lost count, but I think we're up to around 146 bills under this Labor government that have been guillotined through the Senate.

In the hours motion moved today, they're adding not just these two bills but another 11. Another 11 bills will be added to this seemingly never-ending list of bills that are just rushed through this place without proper scrutiny. Then we end up finding out a few days, weeks, months later that the bills didn't actually do what the government thought or they're acting in a way that the government didn't understand. They hate scrutiny and, with their alliance partners the Greens, they push these bills through this place without proper scrutiny, without adequate attention to the drafting of the provisions they are putting in place and without allowing this parliament, this Senate chamber, to do its job, which is to scrutinise legislation both through the committee system and in this chamber, to adequately debate it and to have extensive committee stages where the minister is forced to appear in this place and actually answer questions of any senator.

That is the rigour we want from our democracy. That is the rigour we want from our parliament. We don't want a deal that we don't even know the content of. It was done behind closed doors between Labor and the Greens to rush this bill and another 10 bills through this parliament in the next four or five days, and we don't know what the deal is. The Australian people certainly don't know what the deal is. That is just not acceptable to democracy. That is not an acceptable way to treat this parliament. That is not an acceptable way to treat the Senate. The Senate is the house of review. This is where the hard work gets done. Treating the chamber in such a cavalier fashion and allowing the Greens tail to wag the Labor dog is just not an acceptable approach to passing legislation in this place, particularly when the lives and aspirations of so many Australian businesses and so many Australian individuals and families are at stake.

The Labor Party have no clue what the impact of their changes is going to be on the Australian economy. They have no clue. Their own budget papers reveal that there are going to be 35,000 fewer homes constructed under Labor's own policy formulation. What are the Greens changes, which were forced on the Labor Party in this dirty deal that we don't know the content of, going to do to that number? Are 40,000, 50,000 or 60,000 fewer houses going to be built? By eliminating non-recourse loans in self-managed super funds, you are effectively taking a house builder, a funder of house builds, out of the market.

Isn't it interesting that they're willing to attack self-managed super funds in this way but there's not a word about industry super funds.

There's not a word, Senator McKim, about industry super funds, who are in the market competing to buy houses against Australian families and competing to buy houses against Australian young people. There's not a word about those institutional industry super funds, who are in exactly the same markets competing to buy those houses that young Australians want. But you'll knock the self-managed super funds out of that market. You'll knock out those people who are trying to provide for their own future, as they were encouraged to do. Effectively, you're also locking out any future self-managed super funds, so young people who would like to look after their own future retirement needs and who wish to be self-managed are now eliminated from having this avenue to secure their own future wellbeing.

This is a disgrace. The nature of the deal is a disgrace. It was done behind closed doors. We really don't know the content of it. We don't know what's been agreed. We have no idea what the implications will be, except that it will be a hammer blow to aspiration in this country. It will be a hammer blow to those young people who are seeking to generate their own capital gains and their own returns, to see their own wealth improve and to secure a positive future for themselves and their families. This is not the Australia we want. This is not the parliament we want. This is not the way we want to see the Senate chamber treated. It is an absolute disgrace.