Senator ZED Seselja:
Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you one and all. Welcome here to Canberra and welcome here to Fyshwick.
We are really pleased that Gordon could have us here today. It has been fantastic to see his business and to hear about how last night's Budget could help him invest in his business, invest in growing his business and hopefully to be employing more people.
So, I think it’s an excellent Budget, not just for the nation as a whole but I think here in Canberra. We are here with some of Tony's Tradies today and it is great to be here and with that, I will hand over to the Prime Minister.
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Zed. Look, it is good to be at this splendid local business – Lonsdale Auto Electrics. I want to thank Gordon Cameron for making myself, Zed Seselja and the Minister, Bruce Billson, so welcome today.
Last night's Budget is all about helping businesses like this. They are good, decent, creative businesses. They are full of people who want to have a go and we want to work with the people of Australia who want to have a go. We all know that this is a tremendous country. We all know how much potential our country has.
As a nation and as individuals and I want to unlock that potential. That is what the Budget is all about. It is about saying to people: go out there and have a go. If you want to invest in upgrading your business we will give you the instant asset write-off and that is going to make it easier for you to expand, to employ, to create and that is what it is all about: it is all about building the better country that we all yearn for; the better country that we all know is within our grasp, and this Budget makes it easier for us to grasp the success that is waiting for people.
So, I am really pleased with the way small business, in particular, has responded to the Budget.
I want to particularly thank Bruce Billson, the Minister for Small Business, who has been an evangelist for small business – he really has been. There is hardly a small business in the country that Bruce hasn't been reaching out to over the last 18 months and the small business measures in this Budget are a tribute to his advocacy and his analysis.
Bruce?
SMALL BUSINESS MINISTER:
Thanks, Prime Minister. It’s great to be here at Gordon's business, a family enterprise, showing you what we can do if we energise enterprise. Gordon's business has relocated here. We need a hoist – the instant asset write-off will make that possible, something that is within his reach to grow his business and the employment that stems from it.
This is the story of this Budget: encouraging enterprising people to have a go, whether it is Tony's Tradies seeing improvements in building approval numbers, wanting to get the kit and the tools and the ute that they need to be a part of that part of growth of the economy – we are supporting that. Whether it is the barista around the corner with a new coffee machine, whether it is the home-based business, we are there for them all to energise enterprise and through that, recover the 519,000 jobs lost in small business under Labor. Recover those jobs, build more jobs for the future, and put the mojo back into the Australian economy. We are the best friends small business has had and this was the biggest package that small business has seen.
Prime Minister, I want to thank you and Joe and Mathias for creating the Budget space to put this investment in enterprising men and women that’s about our country’s future and it’s an honour to be part of your team.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Bruce. Do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
You dumped Labor's instant asset write-off provisions saying it was unaffordable at the time. Do you concede now that was a mistake, and you could have kept them and instead of reheating a policy in this Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that the context and the circumstances are entirely different. That was something that was supposed to be funded by the mining tax which wasn't actually raising any money. This is very different. We are doing this today. We did this last night because we are building on last year’s Budget. Last year's Budget did the hard yards. Yes, there was some tax cutting in last year's Budget – we got rid of the carbon tax, we got rid of the mining tax but we are building on that in this year's Budget with this unprecedented package for small business. A lot of governments talk about doing the right thing by small business. This Government has done the right thing by small business and, as far as I am concerned, every Coalition Government budget should involve doing the right thing by the Australian people, giving them back some of their tax.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you came to power talking about reform. Last year's Budget was all about a budget emergency but this year's has very much gone the other way. Have you abandoned your reform agenda because your Government no longer has the political capital?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Last year's Budget helped to set up this year's Budget and this year's Budget will help to set up next year's Budget because that’s what happens when you’ve got a Government which is consistently into the task of budget repair and which is consistently trying to ensure that the creative people of our country are given the encouragement that they need and deserve. So, that’s what we are doing: we are building on what we did last year and what we do this year will be built on next year.
Now, I regard tax cutting as reform. Lower taxes are better taxes and whenever you can reduce taxes you are reforming and strengthening our economy.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, if the write-off is so important will you make it a permanent measure?
PRIME MINISTER:
I know everyone loves to speculate on what might happen down the track rather than focusing on what is real and concrete today, and what is real and concrete today is the instant asset write-off and that’s why I’m encouraging the small businesses of our country to get out there today and invest because if you invest, you will grow, you will employ, you will create and that’s what our small businesses are so good at. They are very creative people. I have faith in them, this Government believes in them, and we want them to make the most of their opportunities.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just on the write-off, one of the problems with some stimulus-type packages in the past has been the capacity for gauging. Are you satisfied that only ridgy-didge businesses will take advantage of it and can you walk us through some of the safeguards?
PRIME MINISTER:
This will be administered by the Tax Office and the Tax Office is well practiced at ensuring that people are only doing what’s legitimate under the rules. The Tax Office is well experienced in dealing with all business but particularly with small business and I am very confident that this will be administered fairly, justly, effectively and to the benefit of all the people of Australia.
QUESTION:
In relation to PPL, what do you have to say to all those women? We’ve gone from a scheme that saw $75,000 for women to one that will see $11,000 for women. Are they the expense here of this Budget – you have had to abandon your promise to women and paid parental leave to get this Budget together?
PRIME MINISTER:
As you know, I am a very strong supporter of paid parental leave – a very strong supporter of paid parental leave – and I have worn a lot of political heat over the years because of my support for paid parental leave. But, it’s very important to make responsible choices. It’s very important to prioritise, particularly when we are still dealing with the debt and deficit legacy of Labor.
What I discovered over the last 12 months or so, talking to the families of Australia, was that they thought that the real need at this time is improved child care and that’s why we have got the Jobs for Families package. It was pretty clear to me and to my colleagues that was the real priority of the families of Australia and, of course, if we invest in child care, it’s not just good social policy but it is good economic policy because, again, it unlocks peoples' creativity. It unlocks peoples' productivity and that’s what we are trying to do: we want to encourage everyone to make the most of themselves and that is what this Budget is all about.
QUESTION:
What do you say, though, to a parent who as recently as January was planning for your more generous scheme and now you have put in place a scheme that is less generous than Labor’s that is already in place? What do you say to those parents?
PRIME MINISTER:
They know that we have taken the scheme that was proposed off the table and what we are saying is that in the current circumstances, there shouldn't be double-dipping. For instance, here in the ACT, there are lots of Commonwealth public servants who have quite a generous paid parental leave scheme. Why should there be double-dipping – once, as a public servant and another time through the social security system? It doesn't seem right. That is why we are ending the double-dipping and it is interesting that the Labor Party seems to be supporting that double-dipping and I think it is important that people ask them why they are continuing to support this double-dipping. Why should Commonwealth public servants or State public servants for that matter have two goes at the taxpayer when it comes to paid parental leave?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, why are you offering the NT the option to take full responsibility of its remote communities and outstations? Isn't this the same deal you have offered WA that has led to these fears of community closures?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are serious about doing the right thing by all the people of Australia, particularly the indigenous people of Australia and the interesting thing about our indigenous policies is that essentially we have maintained indigenous spending in this Budget and I am very proud of that, because while we had to make some modest savings in last year's Budget, I want to be a prime minister for indigenous affairs and that is why I am pleased we have been able to protect that spend in this Budget.
QUESTION:
Can you guarantee the public that you won't be taking them to an election this year?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can guarantee the public that we will well and truly and faithfully do what we told them we were going to do at the last election. We said at the last election that we were going to stop the boats, scrap the carbon tax, build the roads and get the Budget under control and to the best of our ability, in the circumstances in which we have found ourselves, that is exactly what we have sought to do.
I am very pleased that because of last night's Budget and the tax cuts that we have given to small business, the access to their own money that we have given to small business we really will encourage people to have a go. I like to think that that's deep in our Australian character. We want to extend to everyone a fair go and we can do that because so many Australians are out there every day having a go. People like the Camerons here in this business, there are a couple of million small businesses out there and each and every one of them is feeling much more optimistic and much more confident about the future today because of the Budget last night.
Thank you.
[ends]