At the Budget dinner last Tuesday, business owners at the table were on their phones straight away, texting and talking. The instant write off of assets under $20,000, has fired up the sector, as it was designed to do.

For small businesses with a turnover less than $2 million annually, there is an immediate tax deduction for any asset costing less than $20,000 (the previous threshold was $1,000). This can be applied to as many individual items as a business wants. If the assets are over $20,000 they can be pooled and depreciated at the same rate – 15 per cent in the first income year and 30 per cent per year after. If the pooled assets are below $20,000 in value, they can be immediately deducted until the end of June 2017.

I was at Cootamundra earlier this week and a producer came over to tell me he would now be getting fencing replaced and paying a contractor to do it. He was ordering the materials in town this week.

Money is being spent, investment is coming forward and this has an immediate effect on business confidence and the economy.

As I said in parliament last week, the entrepreneurs and innovators are not inside parliament house, “they’re out there; they are in the private sector.”

What drives the economy more than anything else is the job creation, investment and prosperity generated by small business people: farmers, tradespeople, accountants, lawyers, entrepreneurs. They are the ones that create prosperity for our economy and our country. We want these people investing and creating jobs for Australia's future. Nowhere is that more true than in regional Australia. 

I encourage any business owners and farmers to send me an email angus.taylor.mp@aph.gov.au and tell me how you’re having a go, with these new incentives in place. 

There is also much in the Budget about infrastructure investment. I am delighted that Hume has received $16 million of investment under the National Stronger Regions Fund, including a wastewater treatment plant in Goulburn and a new $6 million pipeline to deliver water to Murrumbateman.

I am well aware the community of Murrumbateman has been on severe water restrictions for years now. Federal funding for a new 17km pipeline from Yass will mean water security for the village for at least the next decade.

This investment in vital infrastructure supports the growth of a great region which has been stimulated not just by this Budget, but by what this government has been doing since it has been in power.