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Legislative Assembly 1650 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Thursday 7 September 2006 ______ Mr Speaker (The Hon. John Joseph Aquilina) took the chair at 10.00 a.m. Mr Speaker offered the Prayer. Mr SPEAKER: I acknowledge the Gadigal clan of the Eora nation and its elders and thank them for their custodianship of this land. PAY-ROLL TAX AMENDMENT (SUPPORTING JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS) BILL Second Reading Debate resumed from 31 August 2006. Mrs SHELLEY HANCOCK (South Coast) [10.00 a.m.]: I am pleased to support the Pay-roll Tax Amendment (Supporting Jobs and Small Business) Bill. Indeed, I am pleased to support any measure from either side of this House that will improve the situation for struggling businesses, not only in my electorate of South Coast but throughout New South Wales. The bill provides that an employer is not liable to pay payroll tax for a financial year if the total taxable wages and interstate wages paid or payable by the employer during that year are less than $850,000. It will mean a significant tax cut for many businesses and no doubt will boost employment in this State. It will eliminate payroll tax for 4,500 New South Wales businesses and will free them from the need to maintain systems and processes used to assess and pay the tax, which are often cumbersome, time consuming and obviously a hindrance to business. As honourable members would know, businesses in New South Wales are currently struggling—if they do not know, they are simply turning a blind eye to reality. They should support this bill. In many instances, especially in the property and building sector, the situation is dire, and that can be traced directly to the anti- business policies of the New South Wales State Labor Government and its financial mismanagement over the past 12 years. We heard a great deal about the state of the New South Wales economy only yesterday, and today we can read about it in the reputable Sydney Morning Herald, which reports that the State's growth trend has declined steadily for 18 months. In the December 2004 quarter the State final demand was 1 per cent in trend terms but has fallen each quarter since. The weak growth reported yesterday also cast fresh doubts on the State budget, with the Treasurer, Michael Costa, saying that State growth in 2005-06 fell short of the 2.5 per cent predicted in May. That certainly casts doubt on the State budget and all those promises we have heard about. Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition was right in saying that the Premier was leading New South Wales towards a recession. Interestingly, also in today's Sydney Morning Herald the State chamber of Australian Business Limited is reported as saying that the New South Wales Government should cut business taxes. That is what this bill is about. Payroll tax, which is the subject of this bill, is one of the issues highlighted to me by businesses in my area as being an enormous impost and a factor that limits the ability to grow and prosper. This State has ground to a halt, and business confidence continues to decline against the backdrop of a Premier struggling to find direction in regard to the economy and a vision for New South Wales. What has the Government done to counter serious concerns about that economic decline and lack of business confidence? Not a great deal, except to blame somebody else! It usually blames the Federal Government; it never looks to its past policies and tries to rectify them and help businesses in New South Wales. We can almost plot where the decline began: with the Government's scurrilous vendor tax. The Government congratulates itself on eliminating the vendor tax, but serious damage was done during the time the vendor tax was imposed on people and businesses in this State. But the Government always blames somebody else. Ms Noreen Hay: Blame the Federal Government! 7 September 2006 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 1651 Mrs SHELLEY HANCOCK: The honourable member for Wollongong interjects, "Blame the Federal Government"—because she cannot muster the energy to try to find any solutions. Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Wollongong will come to order. Mrs SHELLEY HANCOCK: The electorate of South Coast is facing serious economic problems, and it has one of the highest unemployment rates in the State. Coupled with that is a serious downturn in tourism of $1.9 million. It is easy to imagine the effect that is having on South Coast businesses. In addition, over the past two years some of the major industries in the Shoalhaven have closed. They include Gates Rubber, Dairy Farmers and one of the mills of Australian Paper. I have been made aware recently of impending closures, of companies in receivership, especially building companies, and of a property sector that is on its knees. The closure of Gates Rubber a few years ago was due, in part, to the anti-business taxes imposed on it by this Government. That is what the company told me. Company people came to me soon after I was elected to Parliament to talk about some of the taxes imposed by this Government on the company, such as workers compensation premiums. Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Wollongong will come to order. Mrs SHELLEY HANCOCK: They had pleaded with the former Labor member for South Coast about the company's workers compensation categorisation having been placed in a wrong category and resulting in the company paying wrong levels of workers compensation. The former member refused to listen to the company's concerns. I pleaded to have the Minister come down to the electorate to look at the factory and to try to save that business. There was deathly silence from the Government. That company, which had been employing hundreds of people, has closed its doors. The loss of Dairy Farmers at Bomaderry in the Shoalhaven was tragic—this very large business closed. What was the honourable member for Kiama doing about this at the time? He knew his electorate boundaries were to change to take in Bomaderry. But where was he? He was nowhere to be seen. Though we had several meetings with the workers, the unions, the company and the Federal member, trying to seek a resolution, the honourable member for Kiama was nowhere to be seen—except for a 10-minute meeting that he was shamed into having in these precincts. Labor members would not get out of their offices to go down to Bomaderry to see what was happening at Dairy Farmers. Those are the consequences of the imposts placed on business by this Government. Ms Noreen Hay: Point of order: The honourable member for South Coast is misleading the House, because Matt Brown was actually meeting with Ministers at the time. It is not true that he was not speaking up. Mr SPEAKER: Order! Opposition members will come to order. The honourable member for Wollongong would be aware that the standing orders do not allow her to take a point of order based on an allegation that a member is misleading the House. She can use other forms of the House if she believes that a member is misleading the House. A point of order is not one of those forms. Mrs SHELLEY HANCOCK: I would have expected companies as large as Gates Rubber and Dairy Farmers would be offered incentives to continue to operate in a region where unemployment was high then, and is now even higher and more critical. But no incentives were offered for them to remain there. Though there has been some discussion about payroll tax by the Government, it is entirely discriminatory and is not helping businesses in my electorate. Business is in trouble, and payroll tax is one of the issues raised with me as a major hindrance to business. If this Parliament supports and passes this bill today, thousands of businesses will be relieved of payroll tax. Payroll tax is a tax on the employment of employees, a tax on somebody who takes the risks of putting employees on their payrolls. This is a tax imposed without good reason. It is an insidious tax. Unless we try to relieve New South Wales employers of it, they will continue to go under. I commend the shadow Treasure for her commitment and dedication to her portfolio and for her tenacity in bringing forward this bill last year and continuing to raise the concerns of business in this State. Unless the Premier has the foresight and vision to initiate a rescue plan for businesses in New South Wales, their plight will get worse and the budget announced by the Treasurer will be in complete disarray as a result of his predictions not coming to fruition. This is a serious matter—but not for the Minister for Small Business, Minister for Regional Development, and Minister for the Illawarra, who continually interjects to make mindless comments. Obviously, he is not taking seriously the problems in my region with respect to business. I have been 1652 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 7 September 2006 pleased this morning to represent the businesses in my electorate. I ask members on both sides of the House to support the bill. Ms NOREEN HAY (Wollongong) [10.14 a.m.]: The Opposition has no credibility when it comes to economic or financial matters. Last month's Federal Government interest rate rise was yet another slug from Canberra on New South Wales families. Premier Iemma made it clear that the Prime Minister must act to protect New South Wales home owners from the effects of this additional impost on family budgets.
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