Mr FITZGIBBON (10:55 PM) —Speaking on the appropriations bill earlier tonight, I noticed that the member for Cook was speaking a lot about the benefits contained within the budget for older Australians. He told the House that seniors in his electorate of Cook were delighted by the outcome of the budget, indeed overwhelmed by the generosity of the budget towards older Australians. The experience in my own electorate has been much different. Firstly, I turn to those who are on the age pension, who were absolutely aghast that the best the government could do for them, in terms of compensation for the GST, was a one-off $300 grant. More surprised were those on disability pensions and those on carers pension, who learned the next day that they would be receiving no money whatsoever. Just as surprised were all those self-funded retirees not of pensionable age—65 years for men and I think it is 61½ years for women—who are of course excluded from any benefit under the initiatives taken in respect of self-funded retirees. Surprised also were those of pensionable age but who had incomes of around $32,000 or more and therefore were also excluded from the benefits flowing from the initiatives contained within this year's budget. So the reaction in my electorate has been somewhat different from the reaction in the member for Cook's electorate, or at least what he would have us believe has been the reaction in his own electorate.

But what amazed me more than anything about the government's budget this year was its total unpreparedness to attempt to at least win back the support of the small business constituency, its total unwillingness to acknowledge the pain the GST has brought to small business and therefore to attempt to redress the situation. This is a constituency which has been hit for six by the GST and yet, despite having all the resources of government, this government is unprepared to put forward one initiative designed to address that pain. We heard the Treasurer telling us that there were some initiatives contained within the budget for small business. I fail to recognise them. There was the reduction in the company tax rate from 34c to 30c in the dollar, but of course there would have been outrage if that initiative had not been contained within the budget because that was part of the GST deal and that was a benefit the small business community was indeed expecting. I point out to the House that less than 50 per cent of small firms in Australia are incorporated, so that excludes more than 50 per cent of small firms from accruing any benefit whatsoever from that initiative.

Mr FITZGIBBON —The Minister for Employment Services, who is at the table, keeps interjecting. He wants me to mention the fact that small business people will now be able to claim a full input tax credit on the purchase of motor vehicles. That was an initiative that was brought forward and of course the big end of town, the motor vehicle industry and its retailers, are pretty happy about that. But my response to the minister at the table is: that is if you can afford the petrol to put in the car. I doubt there were too many small business people in a cash flow position, particularly given the impact recently of the GST, to find themselves able to run out there and suddenly buy a motor vehicle. So I suggest there was very little benefit in that initiative for most small business people.

One thing that really surprised me was the government's decision not to extend the immediate write-off provisions for GST related purchases. You recall, Mr Speaker, that the government decided that, to assist small firms to ready themselves for the GST, it would allow them to write off in the first year GST start-up related purchases. Many small firms, for a variety of reasons, were not able to take the benefit of that initiative before 30 June 2000 and the sector was calling upon the government to extend that at least another year. The program cost only $170 million in the first year. I expect that most people would have already made that investment by 30 June and therefore I suspect that the cost of such a proposal would have been very little. In contrast, with its limited resources the opposition is putting forward proposals to make the GST simpler and less complex for small business. The member for Hotham, Simon Crean, announced one of them just last week: a good scheme which stands in stark contrast to the scheme proposed by the government. (Time expired)

Mr SPEAKER —Order! It being 11 p.m., the debate is interrupted.