SHORTENOMICS NO GOOD FOR SMALL BUSINESS OR JOBS

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has again refused to rule out serving small business with a bigger tax bill, Small Business Minister Michael McCormack said.

 

“Yesterday, Bill Shorten was talking about small business confidence while talking up his secret plans to increase taxes,” Mr McCormack said.

 

“While Labor lectures about the need for confidence, the nation’s biggest job creator – small business – waits to see if they will be slugged with Labor’s confidence sapping higher taxes.

 

“Bill Shorten should be upfront with our 3.2 million small businesses and simply rule out a tax hike to give small businesses the confidence they need to invest, grow and create local jobs.”

 

Mr McCormack said small business confidence is eroded when the sector is left without the surety it deserves.

 

“Labor voted against our small business tax cuts and now they are leaving the sector in the lurch again,” Mr McCormack said.

 

“Australia’s small businesses employ almost half our nation’s workforce. They are the job creators and they need confidence – provided by getting the policy settings right – to take a risk, invest and hire more Australians.

 

“The small business sector is waiting for a commitment from Labor to match the Liberals’ and Nationals’ confidence-building, economy-growing tax cuts.

 

“But again Bill Shorten has shown that for Labor, small business is nothing more than a soundbite.”

 

Mr McCormack said the small business sector needed more from Labor than throwaway lines and a secret tax plan.

 

“I have actually run a small business and employed people, so unlike Bill Shorten’s Labor Party, I actually understand that lower taxes mean higher confidence and more money to reinvest in growth, and reinvest in staff through higher wages and more hours,” Mr McCormack said. 

 

“It makes you wonder whether the Opposition Leader and his Labor Party are attempting to intentionally keep wage and economic growth low for their own political gain.

 

“Only in #shortenomics do higher taxes result in higher wages.”