MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr NG (Menzies) (16:01): We heard the rambling MPI from the Leader of the Opposition and we heard that the Leader of the Opposition is focused on culture wars. He's focused on punching down on migrant communities. He's focused, desperately, on trying to stave off One Nation and lurching further and further to the right.
But we didn't hear him talk much about small business. We, on this side of the House, are focused on supporting our small businesses in our communities every single day, and we're focused on cost-of-living pressures. We know that Australians are under cost-of-living pressures and that small businesses are under pressure.
Every single member on this side of the House engages with their communities and small businesses regularly, so we understand the kinds of pressures that they're under. That's why we're focused on solutions. We're not focused on harvesting grievance and we're not focused on sowing division; we're focused on helping them, with real solutions.
My wife works in a fantastic small business. They're flexible when it comes to helping our kids. When the business is doing well, they pass on pay rises to their workers, and, like many small businesses, they're deeply involved in the community.
They support our local sporting clubs and they support the local neighbourhood watch. We know that small businesses are so much a part of the colour and the character that make up our local communities. I'm lucky to represent an area that has about 22,000 small businesses.
I've engaged with a range of the organisations and the small businesses. We've got the Jackson Court Traders Association. I was with them a few weeks ago, with Diana at Royal Stacks and the other members of the Jackson Court Traders Association.
They're focused on working together and helping each other. They've got the Jackson Court Halloween Spooktacular 2026 coming up, which I'm really looking forward to. I haven't chosen a costume yet!
They get thousands of the local residents through, attract them towards their businesses and get a lot more foot traffic in order to support each other in that way. We've got the Whitehorse Business Group, which I attended a few months ago to talk about some of our changes in the budget. I've conducted a number of business roundtables, and I'd like to thank every single one of the businesses.
We had the Chinese culinary foundation. We had people who were investing in housing. We had people working in every kind of small business attend those, and I think it's really important that we, as members of this House, listen to our small businesses and listen to the kinds of supports that they need.
We also have Persian Business Referrals. They meet every Saturday at seven o'clock in the morning. They're well attended.
They support people from Persian backgrounds. Like so many small businesses, there are a lot of our businesses that are owned by people from migrant backgrounds. As the Prime Minister said during question time, a third of businesses are owned by people of migrant backgrounds.
They give so much to our community, and we all benefit by having a lot more choice in food. We know how much the food culture in our local areas has improved. Around Box Hill, we don't just have one kind of Chinese food; you can get Chinese food from a range of areas.
You can get Indian food and Korean food. In my area, you can get fantastic Persian food as well, as I've said. I'd invite any member of parliament to pop down to the area around Menzies if you want to try some amazing fare.
We're focused on making sure that we're doing everything we can to make life easier for small businesses, not just sowing fear and division. That's why in the last budget we've provided $3.8 billion in new tax relief and practical measures. These practical measures include the $20,000 instant asset write-off, which we have made permanent.
Around 300,000 small businesses claimed it in the 2024-25 financial year. Every year since 2015 owners have waited to see if it would be made permanent. That's exactly what we did.
That helps them with their cash flow Menzies has a lot of professionals and a lot of tradies. The professional services, construction and real estate, make up around 15 per cent of local businesses. Construction makes up around 15 per cent of Menzies businesses.
There are a lot of sole traders. The write-off means that they can buy tools and utes and that they'll be able to keep that important cash flow going, as does the permanent two-year loss carry-back. We've also got loss refundability for start-ups because we want to make sure that we're backing those who are coming up with innovative ideas, and we're going to continue to make sure that we're supporting our small businesses in every single way that we can.