19 October 2001
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
Thank you Ian, my other Parliamentary colleagues, to the Liberal Party Candidate for the seat of Dickson, Peter Dutton. Can I say how delighted I am to be in the electorate of Dickson carrying the fight on behalf of the Liberal Party into a Labor Party marginal seat.
This is a political election campaign in which the Liberal Party is in both an attacking mode and a defending mode. We are attacking Labor marginal seats and we’re also defending those seats that we hold by small majorities. The election campaign has now entered a very important phase and today I’ve chosen to come to the seat of Dickson to lend my very strong support again to a candidate in Peter Dutton for whom I have a very high regard and who is doing a great job in carrying the Liberal flag in this very important seat. I’m also taking the opportunity to release the Coalition’s policy on Small Business. Like Peter, I grew up in a small business environment and I learnt from my earliest years that to start your own business and to work hard and hope to accumulate a little bit of capital and to leave your family better off than you were was one of the great objectives of the Australian dream. And that is certainly an experience I had and the kind of Australia I grew up in had as part of it’s ethos the opportunity for men and women start their own businesses and to work hard and to be decently rewarded. And as a result the Liberal Party has always retained a special place in it’s collective heart for the small business community. And there are many reasons why the small business community in making it’s decision as to how it will vote on the 10th of November should think favourably of the present Government. That is not to say that everything we have done has been perfect for small business, it’s not to say there hasn’t been some transitional difficulties in relation to the new tax system, an issue to which I’ll come in a moment. But the greatest thing that we have done for small business is that we have generated an economic climate where they’ve had an opportunity of getting on with making money, getting on with employing people and getting on with deriving the benefits of a stronger economic environment and stronger economic growth. Of all the things that we have done for small business, nothing has been more important than the climate we have created which has allowed interest rates to fall dramatically over the last five and a half years. The worst feature of life for small business under the Keating Government were the Himalayan levels to which interest rates soared during the Labor Party years. I’m sure men and women in small business will never forget those remarks about how “you’ve never had it so good” which came from the lips of the former Prime Minister. Many in this room in small business will remember that overdraft rates reached 20.5% or even more. If you were a farmer you were paying a bill rate of 22 or 23%. And the greatest thing I believe we have done for small business is to give you a decent interest rate environment and the greatest single threat to small business from the election of a Labor Government will be a return of the very high interest rates that obtained under the Labor years. The trilogy that I call it of $96 billion of Government debt of 17 to 20% interest rates and unemployment at levels of almost 11% when Mr Beazley was Minister for Employment. They were the principal elements of the Labor Party legacy that we inherited in March of 1996. And over the last five and a half years we have delivered lower interest rates, we have generated more than 830,000 new jobs, we have reduced unemployment, we have reduced the company tax rate from 36% to 30%, we have halved the capital gains tax for individuals, we have introduced an industrial relations system that is far more amenable and friendly and sympathetic to people in small business. We have abolished compulsory unionism, we have strengthened the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade Practices Act, we have endeavoured against fierce opposition from the Labor Party and others in the Senate to further reform the iniquitous unfair dismissal laws that are denying small business the right to employ probably an additional 50,000 Australians. We have acted to protect the employment prospects of young people by protecting aged based wages. In other words across all those fronts we have taken action which has created a climate, an economic climate which is far more conducive to the small business community. The reduction in small business overdraft interest rates since the Coalition was elected means a saving on interests costs of around $2500 a year for a small business with a $100,000 outstanding. As I mentioned earlier, we have repaid, by the end of this financial we will have repaid $58 billion of the $96 billion of government debt that we inherited in March of 1996. And if you think that is an academic Treasury figure of no meaning to a man or woman running a small business, let me remind you that it is when governments go into debt that pressure is generated in the money markets that force up interest rates and make them less affordable for people who are operating businesses. I am proud of the fact that we are the first government to appoint a minister specifically designated to look after the interests of small business and I want to thank Ian McFarlane for the pragmatic down to earth, energetic way that he has gone about fulfilling that job in the months that he has been in office. He has done a great job of getting around the Australian community, he has conducted scores and scores of round table discussions with small groups of people in small business designed to understand what their concerns are and I want to warmly thank you Ian for the tremendous job you have done for the Coalition.
Ian’s advocacy and Ian’s approach has delivered some outcomes for small business in specific areas. He recently announced a package of measures worth $21 million to reduce administrative complexity and promote the take up of e-commerce by small business. I mentioned a moment ago that reforming the unfair dismissal laws has been a constant objective of the Coalition. We have already achieved a three month probationary period for new employees on federal awards before they can make an unfair dismissal claim despite the continuing opposition of the Australian Labor Party. But we must go further. I therefore commit the Coalition if it is re-elected on 10 November to securing through Parliament, laws to provide a full exemption for small business from all unfair dismissal claims.
And let me underline the importance of this to employment growth. Getting rid of these vexatious unfair dismissal laws is not some kind of one-sided gift to the small business community, it is certainly of value to small business but it will also open up job opportunities because if you are running a small business and you don’t have the Damacles sword of a vexatious unfair dismissal claim hanging over your head, if you take somebody on you are more likely to take on more staff and I have lost count of the number of people over the years who have come to me at gatherings and said if only we didn’t have these unfair dismissal laws I would take a risk and I would take more people on but I have only got a small business, I can’t afford to settle a claim for $20,000 or $30,000 out of court. A big company may be able to do that, the government may be able to do that but I can’t therefore I won’t give the young person a go. Now that is basically what happens. And it is because the Labor Party either doesn’t understand that or doesn’t care about it that they remain so completely insensitive to the issue of unfair dismissal claims.
But moving on I also commit the Coalition government to a $3 million programme to streamline Australian Securities and Investment Commission and Australian Tax Office reporting systems. Both of these bodies currently collect similar information from businesses for company registration and Australian Business Number applications. These processes will be rolled into one in order to reduce administrative expense and complexity. This commitment builds on the recent commitment made by Mr MacFarlane to abolish annual company returns for our 700,000 small proprietary companies and to cap their annual ASIC fees at $200 for the next three year period. The Coalition will also introduce a new $36 million small business assistance programme. This new programme will consolidate the small business enterprise culture programme and the small business incubator initiative. The new programme will fund small business incubators and projects that promote enterprise in the small business sector as well as initiatives that promote small business development and industry best-practice. The Coalition will also provide $24 million to extend the popular small business assistance officer initiative into metropolitan areas. This initiative has been piloted in 46 country areas since July of this year. Small business assistance officers provide small business operators with access to personalised services on a range of federal, state and local government issues. They also offer networking and mentoring and skills development help for small business to help them access government programmes and assistance.
Earlier this week I made a number of announcements in a broader business policy release that are of importance to the small business community. Many of you will be aware of debate in the community about the operation of the Trade Practices Act. There is an ongoing debate as to whether that act properly reflects the balance that should exist between large corporations which are necessary to the full participation of Australia in a globalised economy and the smaller enterprises which are so important in the employment of Australians and so important to the dynamism of our economy at a local level. Some argue that the trade practices act is too restrictive. Others argue that it doesn’t provide enough protection to the small business community. I therefore decided that if we are returned to Government we’ll immediately initiate a full scale review of the competition provisions of the trade practices act. I intend to appoint somebody whose skills and understanding of the operation of competition law and the terms of reference will enable the debate to be fully ventilated as to wether a right balance and a proper balance exists between large and small businesses. And that committee will be invited to report to the Government by August of next year and we will ensure that small business representatives and advocates play an essential role in the conduct of this review.
I don’t imagine there’d be any man or woman in small business that doesn’t from time to time of course have dealings with the taxation office. And if there are, you wouldn’t be telling me, but collecting tax is not an easy job and I have to say as a former Treasurer I have some sympathy for the administrative challenge that is involved in the operation of the Australian taxation office. But it is very clear to me that there is a deal of difficulty, a deal of friction between the business community and the taxation office on occasions. Sometimes it’s the fault of the taxation office and sometimes it’s the fault of others. You need to preserve the political independence of the taxation office, you cannot have a situation where people are lobbying Ministers about their tax assessments. But you do need a new mechanism, a different mechanism to allow people who feel they have a legitimate complaint about the operation of the taxation office and not just a generalised gripe about the fact they have to pay tax and most of us at various stages sort of feel a bit uneasy about that but we accept it as good citizens that it’s our obligation as it is because we can’t run a decent society unless everybody pays their fair share so that we can provide for an army and we can provide for public services that we need. But recognising those concerns and also recognising the need to preserve the political independence of the Taxation Commissioner and the Australian Taxation Office the Coalition intends if it is returned on the 10th of November, in order to provide a new source of independent advice to Government in respect to taxation matters and also to act as an advocate, a champion if you like, a facilitator of behalf of people in the business community and the taxation office, we intend to create a new position to be called the inspector general of taxation, this person will not supplant the roll of the Treasurer in providing policy advice on the tax laws he will report, or she will report through the Treasurer to the Parliament but I think it will provide an opportunity for many people who feel, although they are meeting their obligations they have some legitimate grievance or complaint about their taxation affairs it will provide a vehicle for those people in relation to their dealings with the taxation office.
Ladies and Gentlemen I mentioned and Ian mentioned to you the impact on the small business community of the new taxation system. I said when the new system was introduced that it would involve a challenge for many, it is a new system, it is a better system but like all significant changes it is required a process of adjustment and fine tuning. This country has needed a new taxation system for at least a generation. Everybody in politics who is making a serious contribution knows that. And in the end some Government, some Prime Minister, some Treasurer had to summon the courage to so something about it. The easy thing would have been for us to have said, oh no it’s too hard, we’ll do it if we get elected a third time, we’ll put it off, we’ll have another review, we’ll go around the country and we’ll listen to people, I mean listening is very important but it’s only important when you do something about what you are told when you listen. And people have been telling us for years we needed a new tax system. And we bit the bullet, we went to the people in 1998, it was politically risky, we won the election, we set about introducing the new system. And at every stage we were blocked and obstructed and hindered by the Australian Labor Party, and their fervent prayer since 1998 has been please Lord will the new taxation system fall over, make Howard unbearably unpopular and therefore we can win the election off the back off discontent with him. That was their prayer every night. They said please let that happen. Now I’ve got news for them, I’m working very hard to stop that particular prayer being answered. And there’s blind negativity. And that was their game plan. Serve the victory off the back of discontent with the GST. Now I know that the administrative challenge of the GST for quite a number of people in business has been difficult. And I want to thank those men and women in small business who are here today for the way in which they have cooperated. Can I say to them that we are aware that some aspects of the Business Activity Statement were too complicated and we did change them. We did respond, some called it back-flip, I don’t care really what they call it, it was the right thing to do. I mean in the end if you’ve got something administratively wrong you ought to change it. I really mind what anybody says about me changing something that ought to be changed. What we’ve done is we’ve fine tuned the administration, we’ve kept the integrity of the new taxation system, we haven’t rolled it back. The mail I get from small business is they want roll back like a hole in the head, they want to move on, they may have been cranky about some aspects of the new taxation system but they’re getting used to it, they recognise the Government has made some changes, they want to get on with life, they don’t want further change and that is the message that I fundamentally get from people in the small business community. But there have been a lot of benefits from the new tax system. One of the reasons why our exports are booming at the moment is that we’ve taken $3.5 billion of embedded indirect taxes out of the cost of goods and services we export. Fuel in the bush is cheaper than it would other wise have been because of our changes as part of the new taxation system. We’ve as I said earlier reduced company tax, we’ve reduced capital gains tax, we’ve been therefore able to introduce fundamentally a more coherent, more effective and a simpler taxation system. It has been a big change, the biggest single systemic economic change that this country’s ever undertaken. But if you want fundamental change made you’ve always got to turn to the Coalition to do it. We needed a new tax system and we did it. We needed water front reform and we did it. Remember the great water front dispute of 1998? Remember the courage that Peter Reith displayed in standing up to the Maritime Union of Australia? And the result of that is that in 1998 the number of container movements on Australian ports was 16.9 an hour. We set ourselves a goal of 25, the unions and the Labor Party said you’d never do it, many people in the business community were sceptical, I can now tell you that we’re moving 27 containers an hour as a result of the reforms carried out by the Coalition Government.
Ladies and Gentlemen they are the sorts of things that the Coalition has done. This election, despite what some people suggest is going to be a very tough fight indeed. It’s always hard to win a third term. It’s easy to run a negative campaign and that essentially is what the Labor Party has done for over the last five and a half years. And if my opponent, the Leader of the Opposition, is having difficulty explaining what he stands for in the time remaining between now and election day, he’s got only one person to blame for that and that’s himself. He’s had five and a half years to tell the Australian people what he stands for, he’s been Leader of the Opposition as long as I’ve been Prime Minister. I didn’t have a head start on him, he always tells me how much experience he’s had as a senior minister in Labor Government. I know he has been a member of ministries for a long period of time but he is running for Prime Minister and so am I. He has had the same amount of time to tell the Australian people what he believes in. You know what I believe in, you know what I stand for, you know that I am rock solid behind the interests of small business, you know that I’m for lower interest rates. I’m for opposing compulsory unionism. I’m for defending the right of people to start a business and if they work hard get a decent reward and I’m in favour if the government is returned of carrying on with those sorts of policies and those sorts of programmes. So please for the sake of small business, as well as for many other sections of the Australian community, don’t go back to the Labour Party on 10 November, don’t go back to 17, to 20% interest rates, don’t go back to union domination, just imagine, if we elect a Federal Labor Government on 10 November, the Australian people will wake up on the morning of Sunday 11th and they will effectively have coast to coast Labor governments. If you think the unions are pushing small business around in Queensland at the present time, or on the building sites of Western Australia because you have got Labor state governments just imagine what it will be like if you also have a fully compliant federal Labor government. The men and women of the trade union bosses will have the sort of power and the sort of authority they could have only dreamt of a few years ago.
So ladies and gentlemen, get behind this man, he is a terrific candidate, he will be an energetic, youthful, enthusiastic representative for the people of Dickson and he will it the sort of on the ground 24 hour attention that an electorate like this deserves and I hope you elect him on 10 November.
Thank you.
[ends]