27th Mar 2024, 5:17 PM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Bill 2023 - Second Reading - Opposition motion

The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). This means the usual motion will remain unchanged.

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) the former government provided extensive support for 3.6 million small and medium businesses, which employ almost 8 million Australians, including through tax relief to support investment and reduce costs; energy programs and initiatives to reduce their power bills; and providing billions in support to keep small businesses open and Australians in jobs during the pandemic,

(ii) small and medium businesses will be hurt the hardest by the Government's first round of workplace reforms, which will harm firm growth and hurt competition,

(iii) despite promising to only raise taxes on multinationals at the election, the Government has broken promises by raising taxes on superannuation, on unrealised capital gains, on franking credits, and by ending small business tax incentives; and

(b) calls on the Government to support the Opposition's amendment to restore the instant asset write-off to pre-COVID-19 levels to boost productivity and take pressure off prices".