Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sunday marks 12 months since the last federal election. As a new member of this great place and as someone who does not come from a political background, it has been an interesting 12 months. Tonight I would like to make some random observations on a few topics on a variety of fronts.

I come from a background that is a little different. I am a proud third-generation Western Sydney publican. I come from a family business background. One of the frustrations for me pre-politics was the quality of debate we have in this place and the lack of diversity of backgrounds of the people who partake in the debate. I thought that tonight I would take the opportunity to throw some random thoughts out there.

The Leader of the Opposition, in his MPI today, spoke about superannuation. He said no-one on this side understood what it meant, how it worked, and that we did not know what manual labour was about. I took great offence at that. I have employed thousands and thousands of people in my time—as did my father and grandfather. I would hate to think how many millions of dollars I have paid in superannuation. I have stood at the front door of a hotel at all times of the day and night. We in small family business land know what manual labour is. There is 55 per cent of the country employed in the SME space. We get it. We understand what super is. We invest in it every day.

I want to talk a little about the mining tax. Before I got here, the concept of a super-profit tax always did my mind in. If it is set at 30 per cent company tax and you have top-up Division 7A tax, whatever you have after it a percentage tax scale is a super-profit tax. The more you make, the more you pay. With regard to the argument that we should tax mining—and now the Greens are turning to banks—the financial reality is that the companies will just pass that on to shareholders. That is the reality. And guess what, when you look at the share registries of some of the biggest companies in this country, they are full of superannuants. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we are asking them to pay twice.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why don't you abolish corporate tax altogether!

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Gorton, I wouldn't mind—and pay it at the personal tax rate. Pay 47 cents in the dollar rather than 30. These are discussions we need to have over time. These are sensible discussions. Right now, company tax is a flow-through mechanism. These are some of the serious discussions that I am sure we will take on over time, with a tax review due.

The last thing I want to talk about is going to university versus getting a trade. Tonight in this place we have been speaking on a bill to do with university education. I come from a part of Sydney that right now, and you have read it in the papers in the last month, is enduring a drastic shortage of trade labour—brickies, plumbers, gyprockers and sparkies. Coming from Western Sydney, one of the best things that I have seen that has not has been spoken about tonight is the expansion of the HELP scheme into trades in the first 12 months. It needs to happen. We need a structure. I am the first generation of my family to go to university. There is an ideal that your children should to go to university. But there should be no stigma attached to getting a trade. It should be supported. Look at the history of trades in this country.

In my electorate of Reid we took massive amounts of post-World War II Greek and Italian immigrants. They were the brickies and gyprockers, the backbone on which my local communities of Five Dock, Concord and all these different places were built. My father was desperate for me to go to university. He had a son in year 10, with two years of school to go and no idea what he wanted to do—in fact, truth be told, he wanted to be an actor! He wanted me to have any opportunity that I wanted. It is not 'force it down your throat, go to uni or do nothing at all. And if you do not go to uni, you are not in some way bettering or maximising your potential.'

After 12 months in the job, I am proud to be part of a government that inherited a mess. Yes, we have structural budget problems. Yes, we need to have sensible and serious debate in this country. Yes, we need to listen to a vast array of people from a variety of backgrounds. But we must always do one thing—aim our policies and government at making this country a better place for our children because, in the short time we are here, we are just looking after it for them.