Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR (Gorton—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Small Business) (14:31): In response to the interjection, I did fill out a business activity statement under the Howard government. I was not too big a business back then, but I did fill out that BAS. The SPEAKER: The minister will answer the supplementary question. Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I thank the member for Robertson for her question. Of course, she has small businesses in her community, and this is a very important question. There are 9,300 small businesses in the electorate of Robertson who want some support from their government. Our job is not to intrude upon small business but to enable the circumstances in which we provide support to them. How do we do that? We do that by providing tax relief in the form of the instant asset tax write-off of up to $6,500. We do that by cutting the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 29 per cent. Mr Van Manen interjecting— The SPEAKER: The honourable member for Forde will remain silent. Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR: These decisions that the Gillard government are enacting will ensure that we distribute the mineral wealth of this country to the millions and millions of businesses that deserve our help. Those businesses employ nearly five million Australians. It is a very important decision and will affect thousands of people in the electorate of Robertson. We will continue to advocate on behalf of small business as the Leader of the Opposition continues to oppose tax cuts for small business. (Time expired)