STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr LEESER (Berowra) (13:51): About one per cent of people can do a backflip, and I'm not one of them. But you can imagine my surprise watching the Labor circus in recent weeks, watching the Prime Minister and the Treasurer do backflip after backflip over the unfair tax changes Labor promised 50 times they would never introduce. Australians were told Labor wouldn't touch capital gains tax, negative gearing trusts or super, and Labor broke those promises.

If you couldn't trust Labor on tax a month ago, you certainly can't trust them now. Labor's toxic taxes don't need a tweak. They don't need a carve out.

They don't need another Canberra fix. They need the axe because you don't fix a bad tax by making it more complicated. You scrap it.

The so-called small business carve-out is a con. Nine out of 10 small businesses get nothing while Labor's toxic taxes still leave them worse off. Labor's idea of backing innovation is a committee in Canberra who decides who qualifies.

Nothing says 'enterprise' like a permission slip from a bureaucrat. Labor's taxes are a punishment on hard work, a punishment on aspiration and a punishment on ambition at the very moment Australia needs more investment, more enterprise and more reward for effort. The coalition has a better plan.

We will axe Labor's toxic taxes. We will deliver lower taxes for small business, and, through our tax-back guarantee, we will give Australians an automatic tax cut that grows every single year. Under Labor, Australians work harder, pay more and fall behind.

Under the coalition, they keep more and get ahead.