address to parliament - BILLS - Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Bill 2023

Brilliantly timed as always, Kim Houghton from the Regional Australia Institute has just texted me. He didn't know that I was going to be rising to speak on this very important bill, but he's let me know that new figures were released just today. There are 92,500 regional vacancies for October. As he says, that has remained flat over the past 12 months and has been at near-record highs since October 2022. Those are the regional job vacancies. He, like so many others, are concerned that these vacancies just aren't being filled.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Bill 2023 is integral to small-business success. The coalition has put forward a worthy amendment to this particular bill, which I very much support, but I note with great interest that those opposite have all got to their feet, walked to the despatch box and talked about how small businesses are the heartbeat of the economy. Each and every one of them who utters those oft-used words is absolutely correct. It doesn't matter whether they come from a metro or a country electorate, I would like to think that each and every one of the other 150 representatives in the House of Representatives—including me, of course—knows that small business is the heartbeat and the lifeblood of the Australian economy, because it is.

I come here with a bit of skin in the game—a lot of skin in the game, in fact. I was a small-business owner and operator before coming to this place. Our business ran for eight years and continued with my two family colleagues after I entered parliament. It is a very successful printing and publishing firm in Wagga Wagga—MSS Media Services. I worked at a medium-sized business in Wagga Wagga, the Daily Advertiser newspaper, which at its zenith in the late 1990s and early 2000s employed more than 230 people. It was a good business which had a lot of union representatives from different industries—Printing and Kindred Industries Union, the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance, which was previously the Australian Journalist Association, of which I was a member for 21 years. So I come here with a balanced experience, knowing the value of unions, knowing the value of small business and knowing, as so many government members have said, that small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy.

I also want to point out that, while in government, we put in place the Australian Small Businesses and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. I know the job that Kate Carnell did in that role. I know the work that Bruce Billson carried on in that role. I would say to any small-business operator to have a look at that website—asbfeo.gov.au—because it is a very good and valuable source of information for everything from dispute resolution to wages, what is a 'casual', updated industrial relations, and mental health support. That's so important to a small-business owner and operator. The member for Menzies spoke earlier about the absolute burden—I welcome the Assistant Treasurer to this debate—of paperwork that small-business owners and operators do. I know we had various deregulation days where we tried to cut through red tape. While the Assistant Treasurer joins us, I will praise him. I have, publicly, in my electorate, praised him about what he is doing with cyberscams and nefarious characters who prey on our small businesses. I thank him and the member for Greenway, the Minister for Communications, for what they are doing because white-collar crime is such an impost on our small businesses. I think the member for Whitlam and the member for Greenway for building on the work we did in government to eradicate or at least reduce the amount of traffic that small businesses have to endure in this regard—unnecessary criminal activity.

Talking of the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman—ASBFEO—it was established in March 2016. As I say, it is a valuable resource for small business. On its website, ASBFEO indicates that 97.5 per cent of Australian businesses are small businesses. Why wouldn't you want to support those small businesses?

Between 2020 and 2021, more than five million people—more than 42 per cent of the private sector workforce—were employed by small business. In that same financial year, small business contributed a third of Australia's gross domestic product. In 2021-22, there were 2½ million small businesses operating nationally, and the number of small businesses increased by seven per cent.

I am alarmed by the number of small businesses that have closed their doors in the past 12 months. I am alarmed by the amount of red tape that small businesses are having to wade through. I am alarmed by the high costs of energy for those small businesses. Appreciating the fact that Labor is putting in place an incentive for the instant asset write-off, and appreciating the fact that Labor claims that it was the originator of the instant asset write-off, way back—

Mr Jones: 2012.

Mr McCORMACK: Thank you, Minister—but also acknowledging the fact that this increased, and during COVID it was unlimited for businesses of a certain size, I note with some alarm—I was going to say derision, but I'll be a little kind—the fact that it's only $20,000. We heard the member for Mayo talking before about the number of food manufacturers in her South Australian electorate. As she indicated, you can't buy much for $20,000 when it comes to a piece of machinery that's going to be used in a food-manufacturing business.

Likewise, many of our small-business owners and operators are farmers. They're already worried about the appreciation test by which, if their farms somehow become more valuable over the course of 12 months, they're going to be taxed on the gain of that property before they actually even sell the property. That is a spectre looming large over those small-business operators who are farmers. But when you think about the sorts of farm machinery implements that are going to cost less than $20,000, to help your business become more productive, there are not that many. I know when we had it as an unlimited rate, when it was even higher than $20,000—up to $50,000—tradies were able to buy a ute, and that was such a boon for them. But under this measure, under the Labor measure, $20,000 for an instant asset write-off is not going to be much at all.

I appreciate that this bill was part of the May budget announced by the member for Rankin, who, just as an aside, didn't mention infrastructure, for the first time in a quarter of a century, in the first reading of Appropriation Bill (No. 1) on budget night, which was amazing in itself. But it is now 15 November. This measure runs out at the end of the financial year, on 30 June. For any farmer or business owner who is going to purchase a piece of equipment, and prospectively import it from Europe, or elsewhere overseas, and expect it to get here on time and be installed in their firm, their factory or their small business and operating in time to meet the measures according to the legislation—well, good luck. Good luck, because that is going to be a near impossibility. If you don't meet the 30 June deadline, tough luck. You don't get to have that instant asset write-off applied to that 12 months.

That simply isn't good enough. Let's face it: we're six weeks out from Christmas, and we know that in a lot of industries and a lot of sectors, not much happens leading up to Christmas and not much happens in the month after Christmas. So you're looking at a business deciding in February to make an investment in something worth up to $20,000 and having to purchase it, pay for it, potentially import it and have it installed—all by 30 June. Good luck! How's that going to happen?

Maybe in May next year, when the Treasurer gets to his feet and does his next budget, he will extend it. Maybe he'll roll over the instant asset write-off measure that's part of this bill for another 12 months. But those businesses that are wondering what to do between February and May are not going to know what's in the Treasurer's mind. They're not going to be able to second-guess him. For businesses, that uncertainty is quite disturbing. I appreciate, too, that there is a provision in this bill in relation to deductible gift recipients and charity status. We should do anything we can to ensure that businesses that are eligible can get DGR status. I know the member for Whitlam has had oversight of this and I know he goes out of his way to make sure that that is all as correct and accurate as it can be, so I thank him and commend him on that.

Small business for my own electorate—all politics is local—is very, very important. Just with the new instant asset write-off measure, we've got 19,600 small businesses that are going to rely on this measure. But I cannot understand—and I'm pleased that the minister is in the room—why it's only up to $20,000. That just defies logic. I know that we as a coalition government put it in as a COVID measure. I was around the cabinet table. I was around the Expenditure Review Committee table. I was very much part and parcel of all that decision-making as the Deputy Prime Minister. When we made it an unlimited instant asset write-off, I know that we received record tax receipts. It's like the old business axiom that you have to spend money to make money. It does cost government money. I get that; I appreciate that. But why wouldn't we want to be more productive?

Labor comes to office and talks about fee-free TAFE and about manufacturing in Australia. I say to the government: live up to what you are talking about. Don't just be a government of words; be a government of action. Put in place measures that, prior to May 2022, you said you were going to put in place. Put them in place now and live up to your promises, please. Do it for the sake of small businesses and for the sake of the economy, because you're not doing it at the moment. We were promised power price relief. It hasn't happened. Businesses expected that the government wouldn't put in place onerous industrial relations laws, and they have materialised. Businesses were promised they were going to get the instant asset write-off extended, but the amount is only $20,000. You can't get much of a ute, let alone a piece of harvesting equipment, for $20,000. While I appreciate that for accounting firms, law firms and other small businesses of white-collar fame you might get a photocopier, a shredder or something for 20,000 bucks, you ain't going to get much of anything that drives on wheels.

So please re-examine this. Please impress upon your Treasurer, who perhaps hasn't been to a farm anytime in recent months or years, that this is important. It's important for the farmers I represent. It's important for the farmers the member for Kennedy represents. These regional small businesses were the ones that kept us going during COVID. The government owes them that. It owes them the respect, it owes them the dignity and it owes them a fairer and better deal on these measures.