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

Here is an interesting statistic: between March and September this year, the Australian economy generated 205,000 new jobs, many of which were in small businesses in regional Australia such as in the electorate of Page. By contrast, in the same period, what happened in the labour market in 1992 when the Leader of the Opposition was the minister for employment? For the same period in 1992, the economy actually lost 15,000 jobs. So, this year, we gained 205,000 jobs but, then, they lost 15,000 jobs. We all know, as the Treasurer just pointed out—and it has been admitted by the Leader of the Opposition—that in July 2000 on 6PR radio in Perth, the Leader of the Opposition said:

We have never pretended to be a small business party.

The Labor Party continue to prove that again today. An important element of the reforms to the Trade Practices Act empowers small business to collectively bargain. It is something we have pursued for the past 12 months and that has been passed by the House and by the Senate. This is another legislative change that is going to strengthen the position of small business in our economy to help them create more jobs in the economy.

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