News

10 February 2025

It is really important that in this place there is always much said to support small and medium business, but there isn't always the follow-through when it comes to the actions that will make a real difference. Small-medium businesses do much of the heavy lifting of our economy. Together they account for more than half of the nation's GDP and contribute over $500bn to our economy, providing almost 70 per cent of local employment. Small businesses are struggling.

The MYOB business Monitor found 33 per cent of revenue declines in small business for December 2025. It also found that 24 per cent of small business was struggling with maintaining cash flow. A fifth of small business, small- medium businesses, are still under pressure for a late payment from customers, consistent with increased inflationary pressure we are seeing across the economy.

Combined with the pressure of subsequent rental increases, cost of utilities, fuel prices, rising supply costs, lower consumer spending and of course much increased insurance premiums, and the difficulty of finding and retaining staff, they continue to have a really negative impact on small to medium business so we need to do more in this place to stand up for small business and the government's amendment today has highlighted that small business sometimes is an afterthought, I would say, because I am critical to say that this bill deals with a lot of issues, and slaps a lot of things together.

So, the instant asset write-off is an important feature of the tax system and it should be made permanent. 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 incentivises investment, that also improves cash flow and I very much support that this should be made permanent so that businesses can plan ahead and they don't have what they have had over this course of parliament, the argy-bargy between government and opposition which then sees these provisions not come into effect in the financial year needed and businesses cannot 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 management for small businesses during the pandemic.

We know that was effective and efficient.

Small businesses are still struggling with impacts of the pandemic, impacts of lower migration, higher supply costs. Supported by small business groups and industries such as Cosmo, the Australian chamber of Commerce, MYOB as well as industry groups such as the communication 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 cyber security will see a significant cost impact on small business stop there has been a 20 per cent increase in the cost of goods since the pandemic stop the construction businesses, building costs have risen 40 per cent since 2020. Costs of commercial vehicles have increased 104 per cent since January 2020.

In all of these issues I identify how $20,000, while 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 that opportunity to electrify, to get some sustainability within their operations and some efficiency within their operations. It simply cannot be done for $20,000. The reality is, for example, a small business that owns their premises that wants to put solar on the rooftop will get a battery, electrify their fleets if they want to get some efficiencies around their air-conditioning operations, get new plants, new infrastructure, all 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 and increase their productivity and ultimately employ more people within our community. So I urge the opposition, be more than just words, more than just promises at election time. Come and stand with us and I urge the government of course to do it as well, vote for this to be a $50,000 asset write-off for small businesses.