QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (15:09): Listening to the answers to the questions put by coalition senators, particularly in relation to the economy, I'm unsure what worries me the most: that Labor don't know the damage they're causing to the economy through their taxation changes or that they do know the damage that they are causing to the economy through their taxation changes and they just don't care.

I suspect it may be a combination of both, because we've got this axis of a bubble that surrounds the Labor Party when it comes to decision-making concerning how the economy runs, combined with an ideology that is so against business. Just this week I've been meeting with different stakeholders, who have been raising their concerns about how the capital gains tax changes are impacting business and in particular impacting the flow of capital into new businesses, into startups.

The changes that have been made by the Labor Party and then the additional changes that came out at the end of last week have actually done very little to settle the concerns of the business community. The answers that were put on the record today by Labor ministers certainly should not allay the concerns of the business community. Indeed, they should send a very strong streak of panic through them that Labor just don't get it.

For example, in the proposed changes to deal with capital gains tax and to deal with the taxation changes, the title of the secretary of the department is referenced 77 times in relation to that very senior bureaucrat being able to make decisions concerning the implementation of taxation changes. That is wrong, and it tells capital, tells business, that, if you have money, don't invest it in Australia, because your investments will be at the whim of decisions made by one bureaucrat in Canberra.

And in a world where capital can shift from market to market, businesses will shift money overseas—or indeed not even look at Australia as a possible sovereign country in which to invest. Why this is of concern, for those who are listening, is that we need to grow business in Australia, because when you have strong business—whether it's small, medium or large—that business employs people; it means that people have a job, it means that people can get into the housing market and it means that they can send their children to schools and can ensure through the taxes they pay that we live in a safe civic society where there is a safety net.

But what Labor has failed to realise with the changes they've made in the budget and what they've failed to realise in their answers to the questions that have been put by coalition senators is that the exceptional Australian dream is being put at risk and the economy is in danger because of this axis of the Canberra bubble and the ideology that is pushing the modern Labor Party in its war on business and on capital.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Sullivan ): Senator Marielle Smith.