MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Ms McBAIN (Eden-Monaro—Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories and Minister for Emergency Management) (15:31): I rise today because I am proud to speak about the Albanese Labor government and I'm proud to speak about the work that our small businesses and our farmers do across this country. I know the member for Gippsland well. Our electorates border each other.
We both live in coastal communities. And I understand his reference to jellyfish. But perhaps those opposite need to have a think about what their analogy looks like.
For me, it's sunfish: no, drive, no direction and completely dense—no idea, because so many of them don't actually come from small business backgrounds. My parents run a main street business. My husband and I run a small trade business, and we service our local community, like the member for Macquarie, the member for Paterson, the member for Parramatta and many more across this caucus who have all run their own small businesses.
I am a representative of a regional electorate, and I get out and I talk to my small businesses. I've just attended four small business awards nights, recognising small businesses across my large regional communities. All of them are innovative.
They do amazing things in our local communities, and the most important thing they do is employ local people and back community groups and events, each and every single day. I know how important farming is to our regional communities. I know that each and every day we sit here we think about how we can support small businesses, how we can do that with our own dollars and how we can do that with policy as well.
On this side of the House we're not just about announcements. We want to see what the outcomes are. We're not about the headlines.
We want to know what the delivery is, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're delivering for businesses, for farmers, for regional Australia, because we want our small businesses and our farms to thrive. We want to help with cost-of-living challenges.
We want young Australians to be able to own their own home. We want young Australians in particular to grow up in the regions, to stay in the regions they grew up with, to raise their own families in the regions they grew up with and to actually get tertiary education, whether through TAFE or universities, in the regional communities they know and love. That's what we on this side of the House are delivering.
If those opposite really cared they would stop with scare campaigns and focus on the facts here: the fact that CGT changes start from 1 July 2027 and apply only to gains made after that date, not historic gains; the fact that there are existing generous exemptions for small businesses and farms in our CGT legislation; and the fact that our ABS data shows that nine out of 10 businesses in ag, forestry, fishing and across our small business sector will not be impacted by any of the changes in our CGT legislation.
These concessions now mean that the capital gain from selling an eligible small business or farm can be further reduced by half or even disregarded altogether, because there are four very generous existing small-business CGT exemptions. If those opposite were serious about talking with small businesses, they would know that there are already four very generous existing CGT exemptions because we want small businesses to thrive.
They exist in our current tax legislation because we want to see more people getting into small businesses. We're maintaining those exemptions. We're supporting small businesses while still making the necessary reforms to rebalance our housing markets.
We want to see the next generation enjoy the same dream of homeownership that many generations before them experienced. Those opposite would have farmers believe that we are coming after their trusts. In reality, our government has already recognised the importance of that and clearly exempted them from this policy.
Farm income earned by trust is an exemption under this legislation. The government has proved time and time again that we are the party that supports farmers and small businesses and, not only that, but that listens. We understand and we will make the changes necessary to make sure our policy is right.
We're delivering tax cuts for 13 million Australians. We're delivering a simpler system, a fairer system, that is pro worker, pro aspiration, pro investment. We want to look after our Australians who take that risk every single day and back them and their ingenuity.
Our farmers, as I said, are the backbone of our country. They're resilient. They're productive.
They are absolutely world class. Under this government, agriculture is going from strength to strength. Since we came to government, we've delivered record investments in ag, and we are continuing to back people who produce our food while making our tax system fairer and more sustainable.
Since July 2022, we've invested over $1.3 billion in rural support and resilience funding, with $980 million spent to directly support producers, underscoring our government's commitment to supporting farmers, particularly as they face challenges. This is year-round support to help farmers who face hardship, including concessional loans. We've added $1 billion to the Regional Investment Corporation.
Earlier this year, our government opened the new drought hardship loan for farmers impacted by prolonged drought. Australian ag has achieved record results under our government—more jobs and more are happening across regional economies in the country. We've boosted biosecurity frontline workers because we need to be able to engage swiftly with new and emerging threats.
We've expanded opportunities for farmers and producers to export world-class products on the international stage. We've delivered practical investments to ensure our farmers and producers can confidently face the changing climate we have. Forecasts show our farm gate production value remains on track to exceed $100 billion this financial year, which is four years ahead of the industry's 2030 target.
When we combine that with fisheries and forestry, the value is forecast to reach $110 billion in the 2025-26 year. We've been upfront that this year's budget would have a focus on addressing inflation, productivity and global uncertainty. We know each of these challenges has an impact on farmers and producers, which is why it is so important to do something.
We've taken steps to shield our farmers and producers from the impact of challenges from the conflict in the Middle East, and the budget will help farmers and producers through our $7.5 billion establishment of the Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility and $3 billion to establish a government owned fuel security reserve of around a billion litres. We're making the instant asset write-off permanent.
We're permanently introducing a two-year loss carry back for businesses with up to $1 billion in turnover, we're funding the CSIRO and the Australian centre for disease protection, which supports important biosecurity testing capability. Our government will not stop backing farmers and producers, and this budget demonstrates that once again. We're delivering for small businesses too, because, as I said, we know that they're the heart of so many of our regional communities.
They're even the heart of our metropolitan communities. From Sydney to Perth and Bundy to Bega, Australian small businesses create jobs. They support families and they help shape our regions and our cities.
That's why our government is backing it with a record-high 2.7 million small businesses who are now off the ground and thriving around the country. Even with global challenges in recent years, Australian small businesses continue to show strength and resilience, with more than 180,000 additional small businesses in operation since July 2022. These small businesses employ 5.2 million people and contribute around $600 billion to our nation's economy every single year.
We're focused on continuing to back them, to start to grow and to build resilience, and we're doing this through a range of measures: making that instant asset write-off permanent; making the two-year-loss carry back permanent; introducing loss refundability for start-ups; having tax cuts for sole traders; and having the new $250 working Australians tax offset.
We're supporting small-business owners with additional funding through mental health and wellbeing support and targeted temporary relief for fuel pressures on small businesses. We're making it easier for start-ups to access funding and we're incentivising research and development investments. We're cutting red tape, we're simplifying rules, we're lowering compliance costs, we're supporting the uptake of digital technologies and we're making it easier for small business to access workers with the right skills.
And we're doing all of this because our story—the Australian story—is a story of a nation building, of aspiration and of giving back. They say we're hurting farmers and small businesses. They say we're taxing farms.
None of that is true. Our government is delivering tax cuts, helping more Australians realise the dream of homeownership, supporting investment and innovation through the most significant tax reforms in more than a quarter of a century. I know it's radical, but where I live people support small businesses, and we are going to continue to do that.
Those opposite talk a big game, but do you know what? When it comes to it, none of them know how to run small businesses. That's what this side of the house do, and we'll continue to back them.