Zali Steggall
Warringah · Independent · Australia
“These amendments don't prevent the government from reforming the NDIS. They don't prevent the government from managing costs and they don't prevent the government from improving sustainability, but they do ensure that participants can seek reassessment when their plan no longer meets their needs.”
“The NDIS was built on a simple promise that Australians with disability would have access to the reasonable and necessary supports they needed to live with dignity, participate in the community and exercise choice and control over their own lives. The NDIS must be sustainable. It must be well governed.”
“If a decision has a practical effect of cutting a participant's support, then it should be treated as it is: a decision that affects that participant. Put simply, if your funding is significantly cut, you should have review rights. The third amendment deals with the review rights where funding is significantly reduced.”
“I rise to recognise the incredible work of some incredibly passionate women at the Arise Foundation and to call for greater investment in recovery and healing for women leaving violence. For too many women, the crisis does not end when they leave.”
“Reform must not mean that people are pushed away from work, study or volunteering because the supports that make participation possible have been overlooked by a system that has become more and more automated. The first amendment deals with plan reassessment.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1) to (4) as circulated in my name together: (1) Schedule 1, item 21, page 9 (line 22), at the end of subsection 48A(1), add: ; and (e) alternatively to paragraphs (a) to(d), the participant demonstrates that: (i) the supports are no longer available; or (ii) the plan is insufficient to meet the participant's r…”
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“So it comes again to that coordination piece at the state and territory and federal levels to improve the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators: removing unnecessary workforce barriers, such as moving between state and territory jurisdictions; improving opportunities for career development, such as early career support and mentoring programs; and, of course, wage increases. So I welcome this legislation. It is an essential part of us having an equitable society where men and women—all parents—have the opportunity to juggle the responsibility of parenting with working and making a financial contribution by being in paid employment. It is so important that early child care be available. Ultimately, it is a key to us having a smart next generation.”
“Now, of course, that is linked to wages and whether or not it's an attractive career pathway. Median wages for early childhood teachers are about 20 per cent lower than those of primary school teachers. They have poorer working conditions, fewer leave days and greater workplace pressures. More than half of graduates of early childhood education degrees choose employment in primary school, so clearly we still do not have parity across these education sectors and we are picking and choosing which ones we value. We need to do better to make sure that the entire pathway is supported and equitable. The government's commitment to early childhood education is welcome, but, as I said, more can be done.”
“Yes, I represent an urban community, but I am acutely aware that child care needs to be available to all Australians. All communities need to have access to quality child care so that all Australian children have that opportunity to develop. So I encourage the government to consider incentives to increase availability of high-quality education and early learning, such as rewarding centres if they meet or exceed national quality standards. We need to make sure there are incentives. Of course, we have labour shortages, so the question will be whether we have enough people to staff these centres. So, again, it's making sure qualified staff are available. We know that they're struggling to find qualified staff, and it's putting extra pressure on families as centres cap the number of places due to staffing shortages.”
“Well, you can't come into this place and complain about the lack of availability, oppose the measure to build and support more child care and then also oppose making it more affordable for families. And you can't then go out to communities and say you're somehow in this place fighting for families. I support the government on this issue. We need to do more to make sure that there are more centres built and, in particular, that regional and rural Australia has access to child care. Victoria University has done a study which shows that 24 per cent of Australians live where there is a lack of childcare availability. There are more than three children for each childcare spot. So it's slightly better than in 2020, when it was 34 per cent, but it shows that there's still a lot to do; there is so much more that needs to be done.”
“That's why it is so important to be committed to having more voices in this place, more diversity. Especially, it is about having more women's voices in this place—to make sure that these issues are not pigeonholed but are put front and centre of good economic management. This bill is welcome, but more can be done. The activity test still needs reforming. I think we need to remove the activity test completely to ensure greater universal childcare access. The affordability is one piece of the puzzle, but it doesn't work without access to high-quality childcare centres. So, as I said, we need to do more about this. During the break, the government committed to funding and constructing more. They have committed to 160 centres. Unfortunately, I remember at the time there was a media outcry about the scale of that spend.”
“I've heard many from the opposition, in their speeches, talk about the childcare deserts. That does not warrant opposing this bill. It means go to the table, sit down with the government. You find ways to do it on other issues, so sit down and work out how we can roll out childcare centres so they are available in every community in Australia. Pointing at the lack of availability is not a reason to not support making it available and more affordable to all. It's so important. I've spoken many times in this place about the need to help women participate equally in work and strengthen our gender equity, including in our superannuation laws and paid parental scheme. For me, this campaign to increase the childcare subsidy to provide more support for working families is essential.”
“The bill presents an opportunity to improve gender equity by providing more choice between increasing caring responsibility and entering the workforce. It's a first step to make universal child care available for all Australian families. Better access to affordable child care leads to additional hours of work by more parents joining the workforce. It's estimated that the taxation uplift will actually be in the order of some $292 million, and it will increase Australia's GDP by some $6 billion. So I dare anyone in this place to oppose the bill and say that somehow this is not a good measure. The bill presents an opportunity for children to access high-quality child care that will set them on the right path. Now, of course, this only works if we couple this with a measure to make sure child care is available in all communities in Australia.”
“The impact is that some 126,000 children from the poorest households across Australia have missed out on early childhood education, and, unfortunately, that missing out is compounded over the years, and it makes a difference. This bill reforms the activity test to ensure that families who earn less than $530,000 per year will be guaranteed access to at least three days a week, or 72 hours per fortnight, of subsidised child care. According to the Department of Education, households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 per year will save around $15,000 a year. This is really significant. It provides a guaranteed 100-hour entitlement per fortnight for parents caring for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child. And I welcome that additional provision for First Nations Australians. It's a high-stakes road map; there is no doubt.”
“The focus on the parents in that activity test does not provide an opportunity to allow all children to have the best opportunity to thrive. In fact, families have been found to deliberately keep their hours low enough to receive support. Alarmingly the Productivity Commission found that 70 per cent of sole parents and secondary earners have reduced their hours due to the reduction of childcare subsidies. If there was ever a counterproductive measure, this would have to be it! The ACCC found that families on a lower income spend a greater share of disposable income on child care and are disproportionately impacted by the childcare subsidy activity test.”
“This is not a women's issue; this will be a society issue and an economy issue unless we can all participate. It is very good to now be looking at this activity test and getting rid of it. It's too convoluted and difficult to understand. As it was, the subsidy didn't increase enough to cover the added cost of child care as a parent increased their working commitments. Too often parents, usually women, were left to work part time because the cost of going full time or increasing their days was simply too prohibitive. That has so many knock-on effects. It means that women may stay on part-time or casual contracts instead of going into permanent employment. It means that they are not accumulating the same amount of super. It means they are not eligible for the same promotions. You then see that pay gap and that opportunity gap widen.”
“The test is used to determine how much care subsidy a family can receive, but it's linked to hours a parent is working or a parent is volunteering, job hunting, on leave or studying, and it has been heavily criticised, because, unfortunately, it has not resulted in increased workforce participation. In fact, it has disincentivised workforce participation. The Australian Institute of Family Studies's evaluation found no evidence that the activity test caused any increase in workforce participation; instead, it is most likely to hurt lower income families and discourage use of access of early childhood education for their children. The Productivity Commission, the Thrive by Five campaign and the Parenthood group all have done phenomenal work in raising this issue.”
“You can point to and blame immigration and do all those things, but, ultimately, the first and best thing we can do is utilise, to the best and the fullest capacity, our current population, making sure everyone in our communities now have that equal opportunity to participate. If you think about it, 328,000 parents are not entering the workforce due to the affordability and the availability of child care. So this bill goes some way to fixing that, and I welcome it. The activity test introduced by the previous government in 2018, designed to encourage workforce participation, was shown not to work.”
“The childcare subsidy does not provide an adequate safety net for working families. We have the second-highest childcare costs in OECD countries. It is prohibitively expensive, and, whilst there are childcare deserts and a lack of availability in regional communities, the cost in urban communities is exorbitant. My community would have to have one of the highest costs when it comes to child care. Australian families spend about 27 per cent of their income—that's nearly a third—on child care, compared to the OECD average of 14.5 per cent. The Productivity Commission's report on universal child care found that 328,000 parents were not entering the workforce due to the affordability and availability of child care. We hear a lot in this place about staffing shortages and skills shortages.”
“So universal child care holds significant benefits for our children, our community, our economy and our society. Of course, for children, it also provides the best opportunity to be happy, safe and secure and it builds the necessary foundations and skills that children need throughout their life, especially when they then enter schooling. It's incredibly important that all children have the opportunity to access that early childcare experience. It's particularly impactful that children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to get into those opportunities. So I very much support the implementation of full, universal access to child care for this minimum of three days, and this bill is a welcome start. The bill is being introduced because the activity test is broken.”
“Women juggling commitments need to feel supported by the community and our broader society. Parents need to feel supported. This is an essential part of Australia moving forward—being able to have that juggle of family, children and work and progressing careers. Of course, support comes in many ways, through the childcare system, family support and a broader understanding of the pressure on working parents. The call for universal child care holds significant benefits for our children, and, far too often, it has quite insultingly been pitched as something that is given to women. With respect to every member, it is something given to our society, because we go nowhere unless we have children and we go nowhere unless everyone in our society has the opportunity to work and to contribute and has that equal opportunity to do those things.”
“It's incredibly hard, and all too often the decks are stacked against women because all too often women are left to shoulder this responsibility. My call-out to men is: it is good for your relationship with your children to spend more time with them. The responsibility of caring should not fall on mothers; it has to fall equally on all parents. It is good for your relationship with your children and for our economy and our society because it means everyone has the opportunity to participate. All too often for women, the frustration of wanting to go back to work but being penalised by a reduced eligibility to claim days in child care—you have this penalty cliff at which there is a point you are working to pay for it rather than working to get ahead. That is just wrong.”
“I've spoken to many young parents, especially women, across my electorate who rely on many different types of care, from private and public child care to relying on family, to help juggle the demands of working life and the exorbitant cost of accessing child care. I've been there personally and I understand how incredibly hard and expensive it is. As a barrister and as a sole trader, I didn't get access to any of that assistance. It was a juggle between local childcare centres and my parents assisting me a number of days a week, and I often had to juggle leaving court and leaving chambers early because of the crazy closure times and the penalty rates that apply if you're five minutes late picking your kids up from the childcare centre.”
“The Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025 is an important bill in terms of finally assisting young families in juggling those commitments of parenting, children and working. Support for our working families leads to stronger outcomes for the economy and our community. The decision about whether to return to work or take more time off to care for a child is a decision that all new parents must face, and all too often women are left with that responsibility. That needs to change. Men and other parents and partners must shoulder more of that proportion and responsibility. Of course, there are trade-offs when that choice of either staying home or going back to work has to be made, whether they be financial or emotional, because none of these choices are easy.”
“A government that cares about safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our communities and is serious about a re-energised and strong economy has to take the protection of nature and biodiversity seriously. This is a must have. Roughly half of our GDP, 49 per cent or some $896 billion, has a dependence on nature. Major industries like agriculture, fisheries, transport, logistics, accommodation and construction will all be impacted if we don't take action. In Western Australia—the ones who we understand have been responsible for blocking some progress—they are exposed to 67% of their gross economic value being dependent on nature.”
“Just today, I met with First Nations Australians from the Beetaloo Basin, who discussed the serious concerns their communities have in relation to water because of fracking. They are desperate for the minister for the environment to use the water trigger to call in and investigate the concerns about groundwater availability, water quality and the increased risk of chemical and wastewater spills, but these concerns have fallen on deaf ears. Whilst we have implemented a water trigger in the legislation, the minister has declined to actually action it and use it. What our future generations need, what children need and what our environment needs is action, not just words and rhetoric in this place. We know that it's not working for communities.”
“This has to be a line in the sand—that native forest logging must stop. It makes no sense economically and is quickly driving biodiversity loss. Everyone has to have the courage also to use existing legislation. The biggest threat to our environment is ultimately our rapidly warming climate. Stop approving fossil fuel projects and extending their licences well beyond 2050. You can't say that you want to protect nature and then continue to make the problem worse. It flies in the face of all expert advice about how we can preserve our environment and biodiversity. Respectfully, as much as you want to point the finger at the Greens and at the coalition, you have not lived up to expectations and promises. Protecting our environment is woven within First Australians' love and respect of country.”
“These areas have a deep historical significance, and community support has driven stronger government protection. Of course, that community support and activism were all the more obvious through the PEP11 campaign, where, ultimately, that strength, dedication and perseverance of communities, environmental groups and local industries saw the government finally reject that licence. Australia has some of the most unique ecosystems in the world, but they're under threat. My community wants to see greater protection of nature through wildlife corridors and investment in the restoration of nature and biodiversity. The first step must be to stop native forest logging. Members of Labor simply have no credibility in protecting nature by their stated means if they continue to fail to require this within their party room.”
“The politicisation of environment policy has resulted in a failure to pass necessary laws, resulting in rapid biodiversity loss and degradation of our environment. This ultimately threatens our society and economy. We depend on the systems for clean air, water, fertile soils, crop pollination, for protection from weather events and for the biodiversity that keeps the whole system working. In Warringah, residents are passionate about protecting our environment and nature. At every school visit, children ask me to fight for the environment. It is the No. 1 issue. Locally, we celebrate and value our access to our oceans—the protected Cabbage Tree Bay Marine Park Reserve, the Sydney Harbour Trust and the national parks at North Head and Middle Head, as well as protected areas of Manly Dam and Bantry Bay.”
“Through a unified and future-focused approach, Australia can be a super power in an emerging global green economy and protect and incredible and unique environment. I would forgive many of the young people here watching this debate who feel a little bit jaded listening to the hubris we hear on this issue, because there is always blaming the other side and blaming everyone else, when the very topic of this MPI is in fact to put political differences aside and come to this place with a commitment to protect the environment, because we can safeguard the environment for our children. They will inherit it. The degradation of our environment and the escalating impacts of climate change are the worst generational debt any generation has ever left, and that is on all our heads. Our environment needs us now, not tomorrow, not next term—now.”
“I want to give a special shout-out to Sean Moran, who was a member of my team. He has driven that visibility and respect within our Warringah community.”
“They employ locally and support small businesses in the area. It's important the government enact measures that will support these businesses. I call on the government again to freeze the indexation of alcoholic excise until 2026, to index the excise remission cap annually in line with inflation and to extend the deadlines for payback of excise debt to the ATO. There is another event coming up that's going to be exciting. That is the Sydney Mardi Gras. I can't talk about that without talking about our incredible LGBTQIA+ community and Fusion Pride, a fantastic local project driven by members of our community. Warringah has changed a lot over the years. We're heading for our third year in a row of being part of the Sydney Mardi Gras and celebrating inclusion and all members of our community.”
“Unlike other small businesses, our local brewers carry a huge financial burden, from growing inflationary pressure to the price of energy and issues around staffing. There's also the question of alcohol excise, especially on spirits, which has jumped 15 per cent in three years. Now that has a huge impact on the local distillery industry. There is discrepancy in how we treat different industries, particularly craft beer breweries and distilleries. In September last year, the crossbench wrote to the Treasurer asking to reduce the impact of the alcohol excise on distilleries, and, while I appreciate the Assistant Treasurer's response, it did not go to the issue. Our independent brewers and distilleries are the cornerstone of our Warringah community. The closure of these businesses would have a flow-on effect on the local community.”
“I want to share with the parliament an incredibly fun and vibrant festival that we have in Warringah, Brookie Fest. It was on last weekend. It's an amazing event that brings so many of our community together. Breweries, distilleries and eateries across Brookvale on Sydney's northern beaches came together to make a really fun festival. The festival had everything from Dachshund races, chilli-eating competitions and skate demos to ice-cold beers, delicious food, great cocktails and live music—everything that brings together a community and a lot of fun. The businesses behind Brookie Fest are passionate, local businesses driving a local, vibrant energy and economy in the Brookvale area. There are a number of craft breweries and craft distilleries, including gin distilleries and others. There are also eateries and other options.”
“These are the people who deliver our essential services, young families and our renting retirees. We've heard from local business who rely on workers on visas and who cannot get housing for their employees close to their work. So the problem is widespread. In areas like North Sydney and Crows Nest, they are looking to build more than 7,000 residences over the next five years, which will provide some critical access to Sydney Metro. But we need to do more than just focus on construction to increase supply. We know that you also have to do much more around the better utilisation of the current housing stock that we have. So I call on the government to commit to meaningful reform when it comes to tax and utilisation to make sure we increase supply through all means.”
“Housing is vital for us to maintain a strong and vibrant economy and society. But, in my electorate of Warringah, it still remains an ongoing and pressing issue, as it is in many other places around the country. In our basic hierarchies of need, safety is paramount. Feeling safe means we have systems to support us, to ensure the safety of our families and loved ones, and this has to start with secure and affordable housing. My office has a housing survey open to better understand the views of Warringah on the measures that could play a key role in addressing housing supply and demand, so I encourage everyone across Warringah to have their say before the survey closes. So far, we've heard from many different people in the community who've been locked out of buying a home and who are struggling to afford rent.”
“Last year, I was briefed by the New South Wales government on the outcomes of their Northern Beaches network review. Two items of very high priority, with $20 million of funding for planning for upgrades, are the Warringah Road-Pittwater Road Officeworks intersection and the Pacific Highway Chatswood-Roseville intersection. The Officeworks intersection was on Infrastructure Australia's infrastructure priority list in July 2021. This intersection is a key bottleneck along the Northern Beaches to North Sydney corridor, so I require the federal government's support. The state government have indicated that they would welcome a sharing of the costs and partnership, so I call on the government to commit to working with the New South Wales government on a 50/50 split for funding these works.”
“The people of Warringah are frustrated with outdated road infrastructure that fouls our area's needs. Heavy traffic congestion plagues residents across the electorate and will continue to impact the North Sydney area once the Western Harbour Tunnel has been completed. Both New South Wales Labor and Liberal governments have shelved the Northern Beaches link tunnel and have proposed no other solutions. While transport remains a state issue, it's essential that clean public transport be prioritised. More can be done federally to improve these issues. In 2019, Infrastructure Australia recognised that the Northern Beaches to North Sydney corridor was the fourth most congested in Sydney's evening peaks, and it remains on the Infrastructure Australia priority list.”
“The $20,000 does not allow for putting solar on your roof or for putting in a battery or getting efficiency and sustainability within operations—”
“Noting the comments of the opposition, I ask the minister, in terms of what costings and calculations have been made by the government—and, ironically, I would say, the opposition as well, if they're willing to share—why the decision is to leave the test at $20,000 or even the $30,000 proposal, not the $50,000 asset write-off being requested by COSBOA and all industry groups as the meaningful threshold that would in fact raise productivity and assist businesses. It shouldn't be just a question of picking numbers that are politically convenient to one side or the other. It would be useful for the industry and small businesses to understand the reason for the calculation of the $20,000. The very point of it is that it's meaningful for small businesses.”
“I urge the government, of course, to do so as well and vote for this to be a $50,000 asset write-off for small businesses.”
“The reality is, for example, with a small business that owns their premises and wants to put solar on the rooftop, get a battery or electrify their fleet, if they want to get some efficiencies around their air-conditioning operations, get new plants or new infrastructure, all of these things will be significantly more than $20,000. I've met with the chambers of commerce and many small businesses in my electorate. They are desperately asking the government and the opposition to come together with a meaningful change so that small businesses can improve their cash flow, invest in their structure, increase their productivity and ultimately employ more people within our community. I urge the opposition—be more than just words and more than just promises at election time. Come and stand with us.”
“For construction businesses, building costs have risen 40 per cent since 2020. Costs of commercial vehicles have increased 104 per cent since January 2020. All of these issues identify how $20,000, whilst a good start, is simply not sufficient to genuinely help small business. So increasing it to $50,000 will provide that extra room for companies to provide wage increases and employ more casual and part-time workers. It will make a difference when we're looking at the challenges small businesses face, especially the opportunity to electrify and to get some sustainability and some efficiency within their operations. It simply cannot be done for $20,000.”
“Small businesses are still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, lower migration and high supply costs. These measures are supported by small-business groups and industries such as COSBOA, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and MYOB as well as industry groups such as the National Electrical and Communications Association. They all support that this instant asset write-off should be increased to $50,000. The move to increase it to $50,000 will assist with the rising cost of goods and services and the urgent need to stimulate growth in productivity. These businesses need room to breathe. The rise of online cybersecurity will see a significant cost impact on small business. There has been a 20 per cent increase in the cost of goods since the pandemic.”
“To that effect, I supported the amendment by the member for Petrie, but I would urge the opposition to now come and stand with me on this amendment because it is incredibly important we do more. This program incentivizes investment but also improves cash flow, and I very much support making this permanent so that businesses can plan ahead, instead of having what they've had over the course of this parliament—an argy-bargy between government and opposition, which then saw these provisions not come into effect in the financial year needed and businesses couldn't plan for and actually write off those assets. But this instant asset write-off needs to be increased to $50,000 at a minimum. It reflects the instant asset write-off measures provided to small businesses during the pandemic. We know that was effective and efficient.”
“The pressure of subsequent rental increases, cost of utilities, fuel prices, rising supply costs, lower consumer spending, the difficulty of finding and retaining staff, and, of course, much increased insurance premiums, all continue to have a really negative impact on small to medium business. We need to do more in this place to stand up for small business. The government's amendment today has highlighted that small business is sometimes an afterthought, I would say, because I am critical that this bill is a bill that addresses a lot of issues, and it slaps a lot of things together. The instant asset write-off is an important feature of the tax system and it should be made permanent.”
“Together, they account for more than half of the nation's GDP, and contribute over $500 billion to our economy, providing almost 70 per cent of local employment. Small businesses are struggling. The MYOB Business Monitor found that 33 per cent of revenue declined in small business for December 2025. It also found that 24 per cent of small businesses were struggling with maintaining cashflow. A fifth of small to medium businesses are still under pressure because of late payment from customers, consistent with the increased inflationary pressure we're seeing across the economy.”
“(5) Amendment (2), after item 3, insert: 3A Paragraphs 328-180(5)(e) and (6)(e) Omit "$20,000", substitute "$50,000". (6) Amendment (2), omit item 4, substitute: 4 Paragraph 328-180(5)(e) Omit all the words after "if the amount", substitute "is so included at any time on or after 1 July 2023.". 5 Paragraph 328-180(6)(e) Omit all the words after "for an income year", substitute "that ends on or after 1 July 2023.". It's really important that, in this place, there is always much said about support for small to medium business, but there isn't always the follow through when it comes to the actions that will make a real difference. Small to medium businesses perform much of the heavy lifting of our economy.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1), (3), (5) and (6) to government amendment (2) on sheet UG105, as circulated in my name, together: (1) Amendment (2), omit "$20,000", substitute "$50,000". (2) Amendment (2), items 1 to 2, omit the items, substitute: 1 Section 328-180 (heading) Omit "to30 June 2024". 2 Subsection 328-180(1) (definition of increased access year ) Repeal the definition, substitute: increased access year : an income year is an increased access year if any day in the year occurs on or after 12 May 2015. (3) Amendment (2), after item 2, insert: 2A Paragraph 328-180(4)(d) Omit "$20,000", substitute "$50,000". (4) Amendment (2), omit item 3, substitute: 3 Paragraph 328-180(4)(d) Omit "and on or before 30 June 2024" (wherever occurring).”
“That is why making the instant asset write-off permanent is essential. It's so we don't get into political argy-bargy that means it's on again, off again. We know that that is so damaging. Whilst overall I support this legislation, I will be moving amendments to support small businesses in consideration in detail, and I urge the government to close the loopholes in the luxury car tax and get on with incentivising clean, net zero transport. Don't keep room for dirty combustion engines that do nothing to decarbonise Australia.”
“The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry have said that a $20,000 threshold does not provide the necessary economic stimulus needed for small business. The National Electrical and Communications Association has argued that the cost of essential technical equipment far exceeds this limit and that an increase of the threshold to $50,000 is necessary. Whilst $20,000 may enable a small business to purchase small, short-lived assets, such as computers for an office, a fridge for the kitchen and those kinds of items, it's not sufficient for meaningful investment into equipment, plant and machinery, which will provide substantial productivity benefits. Ultimately, we have growing economic uncertainty and we need to get rid of that risk element by making sure there is certainty.”
“In the last financial year, ASIC reported that small businesses in construction, retail and hospitality made up the majority of insolvencies. There have been many discussions, as I said, in this place about small business, but we need to actually get on to action. The Productivity Commission, in their A dvancing prosperity report, as well as, increasingly, business groups, have argued that greater productivity measures are needed to help our economy and get small to medium-sized businesses moving. That can be paired with deregulation measures that favour small businesses, such as meaningful taxation reform and simplification on compliance reporting. Small businesses have also continued to advocate for an increase to the limit of the instant asset write-off.”
“They don't feel like they are cared for by the major parties or by the government at the moment. There is no assistance provided to help them wrestle with increasing pressures from an unstable economy. Their issues include the cost of compliance, the IR changes—the amount of changes in the last few years has made it impossible for them to keep up—the ATO being tough, the staffing shortages and the changes that have happened around immigration and visas, for example, which have also made it harder for them to sponsor visas. The cost of sponsoring staff to come and fill vacancies to be able to operate is huge. These are all areas that chip away at the viability of small businesses. The numbers don't lie.”
“They are saying that, for meaningful investment in infrastructure or anything that will genuinely assist with the efficiencies of their businesses, that is where the threshold needs to be. It also needs to be made permanent. They need certainty. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. In Warringah alone, we have over 8,000 small business and 12,000 sole traders. They're driving innovation and creating jobs, strengthening our local economy. Last week I met with a group of small businesses and the chambers of commerce, and they are quite desperate. I can't convey that to the government clearly enough. They spoke of the impact these issues and other changes are having on their operations. They're feeling, with the increasing amount of regulation coming through, that the government is making it impossible to run a small business.”
“This is a measure that was announced a number of years ago, and I have been trying to amend it for a number of years to give businesses more certainty—not last-minute slapdash amendments, especially now when we're looking at it in possibly the last sitting weeks before an election. I again support the government introducing it, but I think we need to think about the quantum. In terms of investing in their new machinery and things that will actually make a difference, $20,000 does not really support small businesses. They need that asset write-off threshold, and that's why I will be moving an amendment during the consideration in detail stage to increase that from $20,000 to $50,000. That is what they're asking for.”
“They have no certainty, and they cannot make investment decisions for their business knowing that this is going to be available because it simply hasn't been. It's on the table and it's been announced, but then the legislation to give it effect isn't there. So a small business struggling with their cash flow cannot legitimately commit to an investment or to spending on the assumption that they may be able to write off that asset, because they might not be able to because the government and the opposition have not come together to pass the legislation necessary. It's really important that businesses get that certainty.”