MATT ALDERTON (OWNER, BUZZBAR ESPRESSO):
Good morning, thanks, everyone. I’d like to thank the Prime Minister for coming to my business this morning at Mortdale.
We were exceptionally happy with the Budget that was handed down a couple of weeks ago. It’s made a huge impact on our business and our customers are pretty excited because they’re going to get a bunch of new furniture and a new bain for the cakes, so we’re pretty excited and they’re pretty excited.
So, I’d like to hand over to David Coleman and I’d like to thank the Prime Minister for coming today.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Thanks, Matt.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Mortdale here in the heart of the St George district here in Banks. It’s great to be here at the Buzzbar Espresso. Matt Alderton and his team have a great business with not only a café but also a video store and a Subway franchise.
It’s great to see the benefits for this business from the Budget allowing Matt to go out and purchase more equipment for the café and so on and also it’s terrific to see the 20 per cent reduction in the cost of electricity this business has seen since the reduction of the carbon tax.
So, Matt, thank you very much for having us today. Welcome to Banks and I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
David, it is great to be here. Thank you for welcoming me to Matt Alderton’s business. I want to say thank you to Matt and his staff for what you do. This is typical of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses around this state, the millions of small businesses around our country – people who put their economic life on the line to invest, to employ, to serve their customers and we don't appreciate the sacrifices that the small business people of our country make to employ their staff, to serve their customers, to build our nation.
As you know, this Budget has been designed to recognise the small businesses of Australia. For the first time in our history, a government has made specific tax concessions available in a big way for small business. We've got a separate company tax rate for small businesses. So, this is recognising, in a way that is absolutely unprecedented, the contribution that small business makes for our economy, to our society and to the way we live.
I should also just say that thanks in large measure to our small businesses, our economy is fundamentally strong and it is getting stronger. It is important that we appreciate our strengths, that we appreciate our opportunities. The growth figures this week of 0.9 per cent GDP in the March quarter are just about the highest in the developed world. A five per cent growth in exports – that's the best in 15 years – a five per cent growth in construction – that's the best in six years.
There are a lot of good things happening in our economy right now. They're not happening by accident. They're happening because you've got a Government which is doing the right thing by business. You've now got a country which is open for business. If you look at what this Government has done over the last 18 months or so, we've scrapped the carbon tax, we've scrapped the mining tax, there's $2 billion worth of red tape, cost savings for small business. We've signed three free trade agreements with our major partners. We've got $30 billion worth of savings in last year's Budget so that we can deliver the biggest small business tax cuts ever in this year's Budget.
So, this is all part of a plan to boost the businesses of Australia so that there can be more jobs and prosperity for everyone.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, yesterday there was some bad economic news – the worst trade deficit on record, retail figures well below expectations. What right does the Treasurer have to call people fools and clowns if they're a bit pessimistic about the way the economy is going?
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, pessimism is a very self-defeating emotion. Australians are by nature optimistic and I know the Labor Party is trying to talk our country down, is trying to talk the economy down because the Labor Party thinks that the failure of our people will be its own political success. Well, that's not how I think. I want to build our country up, I want to make it easier for people to succeed and, yes, you can selectively quote figures to make things look worse than they are, but in fact, when you look at the overall figures, our country's position is as strong as any in the developed world.
As the Treasurer was able to tell the Parliament yesterday, that 0.9 per cent growth figure for the March quarter it's better than Britain, it's better than the United States, it's better than continental Europe, it's better than Singapore. These are good figures and we should make the most of them.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how concerning is it that 10 more Australian jihadists were identified this week and has enough been done to try and crack down on these people?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Matt, obviously it is a great concern to see more Australians going overseas to join this death cult and while most of us find it absolutely unimaginable that anyone should succumb to the lure of the death cult, the fact is that some people in our country are susceptible and it's very important that we should do everything we humanly can to stop it and that's exactly what this Government is doing.
We have, as you know, very significantly reinvested in our police and security agencies, we've boosted our anti-terror laws and the powers of our anti-terror agencies. We have a powerful military force in the Middle East right now which is working with our allies and partners to strike the death cult in its heartland. Part of the spending that we have beefed up over the last few months is about $40 million on what we call Countering Violent Extremism. Part of that is for tackling the online brainwashing which so many people are currently exposed to. Part of it is for working with those who have succumbed to the death cult or who are particularly susceptible of succumbing to the death cult to try to help them to understand that this is an open and welcoming country and that there is just no future in embracing the death wish that this horrible, barbarous development poses for people.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, does the Government have further questions to answer about a letter to Man Monis and should a Senate committee be recalled?
PRIME MINISTER:
I regret to say that what we've seen consistently from the Labor Party in the Parliament over the last 10 days or so is playing politics with national security. Now, just to put people's minds at ease, the Director-General of Security, the head of ASIO, said that the letter was handled appropriately by the Government. The Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said that the letter would not have made any difference to the outcome of the inquiry. My understanding is that the evidence that was given to the Senate by Deputy Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, which turned out to be incorrect, was investigated. The investigation concluded yesterday and the Foreign Minister made an entirely appropriate disclosure to the Parliament.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the Australia's emission reduction has been criticised and scrutinised by the UN in Germany. Are you embarrassed that the world thinks that we're not doing enough to tackle climate change? Should we be doing more?
PRIME MINISTER:
Again, if I may say so, Matt, there is a persistent effort led by the Labor Party to talk down our country. A persistent effort led by the Labor Party to talk down our country and we saw some further evidence of this on the front page of one of the papers this morning. Let me repeat: there is a bipartisan emissions reduction target, it’s a bipartisan emissions reduction target and under this Government we will meet our target. We will meet our target and it's a very internationally respectable target. We will have our emissions down 13 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020. So, we will meet our target.
The difference between this Government and our political opponents is that we will meet the target without smashing the economy with a great big new tax on everything and the clear message coming out of the Labor Party over the last few weeks is: if the Labor Party gets re-elected the carbon tax comes back. Now, you might say, that's just something out there in the ether. In this business, this business that we are standing in, the carbon tax put power bills through the roof and since the abolition of the carbon tax, the power bills faced by this business have come down by 20 per cent. Now, that's why re-electing a Labor Government would be so damaging for the economic welfare, for the employment, for the prosperity of our country.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, when did George Brandis learn that the Man Monis letter hadn't made it to the inquiry? Is that not an [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, as I said, this matter has been fully looked into and it's been fully explained.
QUESTION:
Why did it take four days, though, to correct the record on that one?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my understanding is that once it was realised that the Deputy Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department had inadvertently given incorrect information to a Senate committee, that the whys and the wherefores were gone into and that particular investigation concluded yesterday.
QUESTION:
Sarah Hanson-Young was apparently under surveillance on Nauru – do you think that was acceptable?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't accept that characterisation. I believe she was being, in fact, looked after while she was there.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, will the Government fund a ‘no’ campaign against recognising indigenous Australians in the constitution?
PRIME MINISTER:
What the Government wants to see is a continued community debate on this issue. Yes, we do want to achieve constitutional recognition for indigenous people but it's more important to get this right than it is to rush it.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, in a submission to the tax review the Chamber of Commerce has called for a flat company tax rate of 25 per cent, the abolition of the top income tax rate and the linking of tax brackets to inflation in order to reduce bracket creep. Do you think these ideas have any merit?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m all in favour of lower, simpler, fairer taxes. Lower, simpler, fairer taxes is in this Government's DNA. We all should want lower, simpler fairer taxes and that's exactly what this Government has been delivering since the day of our election. We've scrapped the carbon tax, we've scrapped the mining tax and in the Budget just a couple of weeks ago we've lowered the company tax rate by 1.5 per cent for small business. We've given a five per cent tax discount for unincorporated small business and as you know, there's an instant asset write off for business goods that you've purchased of up to $20,000 each time you buy goods for your business.
So, this is a Government which already has substantial runs on the board when it comes to cutting tax and I welcome people out there in the community who have got good ideas for reducing tax. I welcome that and I also look forward to their suggestions for how government spending can be reined in as well because in the end you can only cut tax responsibly if you can rein back government spending and that's what this Government has been able to do as well.
Thank you.
[ends]