Delivering jobs, growth and opportunity for Paterson electorate

The 2015 Budget is a ‘have a go’ Budget that will help local families and small businesses said Bob Baldwin, Federal Member for Paterson.

“The big winners in this Budget are families and small businesses.

“This Budget will deliver jobs, growth and opportunity in a way that is responsible, measured and fair.

“It is the next step in the Coalition Government’s long-term economic plan to build a stronger, safer and more prosperous future for all Australians.

Mr Baldwin said we all know there are economic challenges – yet because of the economic management of the Abbott Government, Australia’s economic and Budget position has improved.

“Our economic plan is working.  Economic growth is up; jobs are up – nearly 250,000 new jobs since the election and retail sales are at record levels – as are new dwelling approvals.

“Deficits over the forward estimates are reducing each and every year from $35.1 billion in 2015-16 to $6.9 billion in 2018-19. Importantly, our timetable back to a Budget surplus is unchanged from last year.

Highlights of the Budget include:

• The $5.5 billion Jobs and Small Business package – the biggest small business package in our nation’s history;
• The $4.4 billion Families Package to give parents more choice and opportunity to work;
• Reforms that make our taxation, foreign investment, welfare and individual benefits systems fair and sustainable;
• $1.2 billion in new funding for national security, which builds on the $1 billion announced last year
• Continuation of the Government’s $50 billion infrastructure programme.

Mr Baldwin said he was delighted that the Budget will help to build a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians.

More details on the Budget are available at www.budget.gov.au

Government’s Child Care Safety Net offers Increased support for Paterson Families

Paterson families will benefit from the Abbott Government’s new Child Care Safety Net which will provide more support for disadvantaged or vulnerable children to access early childhood learning and child care, Mr Baldwin said today.

Mr Baldwin said the 2015 Budget is part of the Commonwealth Government’s plan to build a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians.

“As a part of the Abbott Government’s Jobs for Families Child Care package, the Government is investing an additional $327.7 million from 2015-16 to provide targeted support to disadvantaged or vulnerable children, whether they be children with disabilities, children at risk of abuse, children from families on incomes under $65,000 or families facing financial risk,” Mr Baldwin said.

“The additional investment mean the Government will spend $869 million to support those children and families who need it most.

“Importantly, getting children into early childhood learning improves a family’s ability to break a cycle of poverty and intergenerational welfare dependence. This is one of the most effective early intervention strategies available.

“Existing programmes that support disadvantaged and vulnerable families are complex, inefficient, poorly targeted and open to abuse and will be replaced by an Inclusion Support Programme, Community Child Care Fund andAdditional Child Care Subsidy.

“The new $409 million Inclusion Support Programme, beginning in July 2016, will provide more funding for services to get the necessary skilled staff and equipment to support children with additional needs.

“Assistance under the Additional Child Care Subsidy, worth $156 million will minimise barriers to early development and workforce participation. It will offer a top up subsidy for child care to assist children at risk of serious abuse or neglect irrespective of family income or activity tests; short term financial support for families in temporary financial hardship, and a higher capped subsidy for families transitioning from income support to work and undertaking study or training.

“The $304 million Community Child Care Fund (CCCF) will support services to reduce current barriers to accessing child care, such as support for disadvantage communities and low income families in high child care cost areas.

“$20 million of the CCCF will be targeted to the integration of child care, maternal and child health, and family support services in a number of disadvantaged Indigenous communities, as recommended in the Forrest Review.

“More than $200 million in additional funding will also now be delivered in the mainstream Child Care Subsidy to expand support to families.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the Abbott Government’s commitment to ensuring all Australian families like those in Paterson regardless of circumstance, can access high quality and affordable child care,” Mr Baldwin said.

Growing Jobs and Small Business Package

Federal Member for Paterson, Bob Baldwin said the 2015 Budget is the next step in the Government’s plan to build a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians.

“The Budget is about building jobs, growth and opportunity and providing a credible path to surplus,” Mr Baldwin said.

“The new $5.5 billion Growing Jobs and Small Business package will help small businesses in Paterson invest more, grow more, and employ more.

“This package will help employers in Paterson to create jobs and assist Australia’s unemployed, particularly unemployed youth, to build the skills to get into work.

“This is the biggest small business initiative in our nation’s history,” Mr Baldwin said.

Small businesses are the engine room of our economy.

96 per cent of all Australia’s businesses are small businesses, employing over 4.5 million people and producing over $330 billion of our nation’s total economic output.

Mr Baldwin said at the heart of the Growing Jobs and Small Business package are tax cuts for over 2 million Australian small businesses to help drive investment and employment across our economy.

The 2015 Budget delivers $3.25 billion in tax cuts for small business and $1.75 billion in accelerated depreciation measures in addition to the benefits Australian small businesses are gaining from the abolition of the carbon tax:

• from 1 July 2015, the Government will cut the company tax rate for up to 780,000 incorporated businesses with annual turnover up to $2 million by 1.5 percentage points to 28.5 per cent;
• from 1 July 2015, the Government will also provide a 5 per cent tax discount for over one and a half million sole traders, trusts and partnership structures which are unincorporated businesses with annual turnover up to $2 million, capped at $1,000, through their end of year tax return; and
• from 7:30pm tonight until 30 June 2017, small businesses with turnover below $2 million can claim an immediate tax deduction for every asset they acquire that is valued up to $20,000 for tax purposes – a substantial increase from the previous $1,000 threshold.

Mr Baldwin said small businesses in Paterson will have the lowest company tax rate for public and private companies since 1967.

The Growing Jobs and Small Business package also includes measures to reduce the red tape and regulatory impediments that hinder small businesses growth:

• changes to the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) system will expand the FBT exemption for work related portable electronic devices;
• reforms to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rollover will enable small businesses to change the legal structure of their business without incurring a CGT liability; and
• the Government will consult on potential changes to the Corporations Act to reduce compliance costs and make it easier for small proprietary companies to raise new capital.

The Growing Jobs and Small Business package will encourage business start-ups and entrepreneurship:

• start-ups will be able to immediately deduct professional expenses incurred when they begin a business, such as legal expenses on establishing a company, trust or partnership, rather than writing them off over five years. This will provide immediate cash flow benefits for small businesses;
• streamlined business registration processes will make it quicker and simpler to set up a new business. A single online registration site will be developed for business registration including company registration;
• the Government will remove obstacles to crowd-sourced equity funding to help promote small business access to finance by increasing the availability of innovative sources of funding; and
• from 1 July, expanded tax concessions for Employee Share Schemes will make it easier for small start-up companies to attract and retain the skills and talent they need to grow.

These measures will help encourage investment, innovation and the start-up of new businesses, which will help Australia’s economic future.

Mr Baldwin said the Growing Jobs and Small Business package will also help employers to take on inexperienced and mature workers.

In the first eighteen months of the Government, around a quarter of a million new jobs were created – but there is more work to do.

“New measures will focus on making job seekers more employable, reducing the costs of taking on new staff, and bringing job seekers and job providers together,” Mr Baldwin said.

The Government is investing $6.8 billion to establish jobactive to improve the quality of services delivered to job seekers and employers. The new jobactive system will be focused on results and reward performance not process.

There will be a $1.2 billion pool for wage subsidies to support employers to provide job opportunities and assist job seekers into work.

The Government will also deliver a $331 million Youth Employment Strategy, an $18 million National Work Experience programme, and changes to Restart to make it easier for small businesses to receive Government support when they employ older workers.

“The Government’s Growing Jobs and Small Business package will create the right conditions for Australian small businesses to thrive and grow,” Mr Baldwin said.

Jobs for Families Package to deliver choice for families in Paterson

Federal Member for Paterson, The Hon Bob Baldwin MP said the 2015 Budget delivers a $4.4 billion Jobs for Families package to give parents more choice and opportunity to work.

“The 2015 Budget delivers on the Government’s commitment to support families by making child care simpler, more affordable, more flexible, and more accessible,” Mr Baldwin said.

“We know families are faced with costs when parents want to return to the workforce. This package gives families greater choice.

“Having two parents in paid employment has become a necessity for most families because of changes that have taken place in our society and economy over many years. All mothers work hard, and many are also in paid employment.

“The Government will invest an additional $3.5 billion over five years reforming child care assistance to establish a new and simpler Child Care Subsidy from 1 July 2017.

“The Child Care Subsidy will provide assistance to meet the cost of child care for parents who are working, looking for work, training, studying or undertaking any other recognised activity such as volunteering.

“Families using child care in 2017, on family incomes of between $65,000 and $170,000 will be around $30 a week better off. Those on higher incomes will, on average, continue to receive the same level of support.

“Families on incomes of less than $65,000 per year will receive ongoing access to early childhood learning, and can be eligible for additional financial support through the Child Care Safety Net,” Mr Baldwin said.

The simplified Child Care Subsidy will replace the current Child Care Benefit, Child Care Rebate and Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance programmes.

The simplified Child Care Subsidy will include:

• introduction of a single means tested Child Care Subsidy for all families, subject to a new activity test for up to 100 hours of subsidised care per child per fortnight, paid directly to approved care service providers to make it easier for families.
• for family incomes of up to approximately $65,000 the Child Care Subsidy will be 85% per child of the actual fee or a benchmark price, whichever is lower. This will reduce to 50% for family incomes of approximately $170,000 and above.
• Families on incomes under $185,000 will no longer have a cap on the amount of subsidy they receive.
• A cap of $10,000 per child will be established for the total value of subsidies for family incomes of $185,000 and above.
• The benchmark price has been based on the projected mean price at the time of implementation plus 17.5% for Long Day and Out of School Hours Care and 5.75% for Family Day Care, recognising their lower cost of overheads.
• A new activity test.
• Up to 24 hours per fortnight will also be provided to children from families with incomes less than approximately $65,000 per year who do not meet the activity test to ensure continued access to early childhood learning. The 24 hours is equivalent to two six hour sessions, which is the same period provided for K-2 public school education. Service providers will have full flexibility and discretion in how these hours of support are delivered.

Mr Baldwin said the Jobs for Families package will deliver significant reform, putting downward pressure on child care costs.

“This package reforms the inflationary system in place under Labor which saw child care fees increase by over 50% between 2007 and 2013.

“All child care subsidies and support will remain linked to immunisation requirements which from 1 January will be strengthened under the Government’s ‘no jab, no pay’ policy. The only exemption to this policy will be on medical grounds,” Mr Baldwin said.

“This is about protecting our children.”

Mr Baldwin said the Government is also trialling new ways to support families, including a Home Care (Nannies) Pilot to help shift workers, such as nurses, police and those in rural and regional areas who find it difficult to access child care mainstream services.

“Our Jobs for Families child care package is all about changing the kitchen table conversation that families are having about being in a job, getting a job and staying in a job, especially for middle and low income families,” Mr Baldwin said.

“We want these families to be able to choose to work, we don’t want that choice denied because of complex, inflexible and unaffordable child care arrangements.

“The 2015 Budget also delivers $840 million over two years for preschool programmes. This will ensure families inPaterson can continue to access up 15 hours a week of preschool education a year in 2016 and 2017,” Mr Baldwin said.

“It’s good news for children, families and preschool providers.”

“The Jobs for Families package is part of the Government’s plan to build a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians.”