SMALL
BUSINESS — PAYROLL TAX
254. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Treasurer:
I have a supplementary question.
Can the Treasurer please confirm that the small business community can expect
no further relief from this state government's massive surplus?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
What I can tell the small business
community of Western Australia is that we have the strongest economy in the
country. According to Standard and Poor's, we have one of the strongest
and best-managed set of finances in the world—in fact, the best,
according to Standard and Poor's. According to the Chamber of Commerce
and Industry of Western Australia the other day, because of this state
government, consumer confidence in Western Australia is the highest in
Australia. Our retail and hospitality figures are the strongest in history. Our
export industries are the strongest ever. We are the only state that did not go
into recession because of the management of this state government. We have
interstate population growth—that is, the number of people moving from
the east to Western Australia is growing. When members opposite were in office,
it was going down. We actually have people moving here. What did we do? We said
to the mining industry, ''Move your FIFOs over here.'' What did
the Liberals and Nationals say? They said, ''That's a bad idea.''
Would members opposite rather those incomes stay in the east? We have done all these things to get the state back on track.
We have secured more commonwealth money for our projects than ever before. And
we cut payroll tax. Members opposite might recall that we gave a rebate on
payroll tax over COVID—they probably do not; I doubt they would recall
that! But we did provide a rebate on payroll tax to businesses with payrolls,
from recollection, of up to around $4 million. We did all those things. We
reimbursed licence fees. We did all those things over this period.
All that seems to have passed the
member for Roe by. Instead, he comes and spies on my press conferences. I might
add, Madam Speaker, they go live on Facebook, just so members opposite know!
They can actually watch the press conferences. There is this thing called
Facebook, member for Roe. He can go and watch them. He does not have to show up
and stand in the crowd with a pair of sunglasses on pretending he is a journalist
with some other National Party staffer. It is bad form. He should not do it,
but if he is going to continue to do it, I have a lot of people that I can send
to his press conferences.