It is wonderful to be here in the heart of Higgins to be able to launch the third Shop Small campaign. This means that right throughout November, we’re inviting all Australians to shop small, but shop big. We don’t just want them to shop small in November, but right throughout the year.
Small Business really is at the heart of the Australian community and at the heart of our economy. There are more than two million small businesses right across Australia and they employ more than 4.5 million Australians. The contribution that small business makes to the Australian economy is around about $340 billion each and every year.
The Government is committed to backing small business because we know that small business is all about creating opportunities and creating jobs. The people who set up their small businesses are people who are prepared to take risks and prepared to work hard.
The Government announced during the Budget that we were going to provide an instant asset write off for any small business that wants to reinvest in their business and purchase an asset worth less than $20,000 and that they can do that right up until the 1ST of July 2017. They can do that for a number of assets and already I’ve heard stories as I walked into a number of small businesses today, about people who have purchased computers, people who have purchased equipment that’s going to make their small businesses even better and going to help them to grow.
The Government has also announced a tax cut for small business, a 1.5 per cent company tax cut for small business and for those who are unincorporated businesses a 5 per cent discount on their tax as well.
We in Australia believe it is important to get rid of the regulation that also ties up small business and so much of the time in a small business can be spent filling in forms, which is not the most productive use of your time which could be better spent doing other things or even investing time with family because so many of our small businesses are family businesses. The Government has changed the thresholds for PAYG taxpayers which has taken out 450,000 people from that system which is saving them regulation of around about $67 million every year.
There are just some of the things that we are doing. We congratulate you on the fantastic campaign that you are running here. We are right behind you, we are right behind small business and I’m so delighted to be here with the Mayor of the City of Stonnington who really does support and encourage our small business here in the heart of Stonnington. Melina congratulations on the job that you’re doing as well. To all of you who work in small businesses, who run small businesses or are thinking about starting a small business – there is no better time than now.