Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for his question. In acknowledging the member for Page, I acknowledge that it is his birthday today and I am sure the House congratulates the member for Page. I also note that the member for Page has indicated today that he is going to retire. We should recognise the great contribution he has made to government, both in his time in this House and as Deputy Speaker and in the state parliament of New South Wales, where he made a significant contribution, particularly during his time as minister.

The member for Page has always been a great supporter of small businesses, the engine room and the backbone of regional Australia. The government’s workplace reform packages, in a number of ways, have significantly strengthened the position of small business in our regional economies. First of all, and particularly in electorates like that of the member for Page, where both employees and employers are looking for flexible arrangements in the workplace to suit their lifestyle, that has delivered great improvements in productivity to small business people. But most importantly in the package was the abolition of the unfair dismissal aspects of the law so that no longer do small business have to confront the unfair dismissal laws that have dogged small business for the last 10 years or more. We have campaigned and campaigned on getting rid of those unfair dismissal laws, and at last we have done so.

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