Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan, whose electorate in the heart of Brisbane in that great state of Queensland now has an unemployment rate of 1.9 per cent. Overwhelmingly, that has to be linked to the small businesses that are in the electorate of Ryan. It is undoubtedly part of the equation about doing the hard yards and making the tough decisions that help to build a strong economy. The Australian, in their editorial today, pointed to the benefits of workplace change. They said:

The benefits of labour market reform are plain to see in the snapshot of the Australian economy provided yesterday by the Reserve Bank ...

At the heart of those workplace reforms is the abolition of the Labor Party’s job-destroying unfair dismissal laws. Small business today have confirmed that they now have an incentive to create jobs. The New South Wales Business Council said:

We always said that the removal of unfair dismissal would free up small businesses to employ more people.

The President of the Real Estate Institute said:

I think with the previous legislation that was thrust upon us it made it very, very difficult for small businesses to survive under that regime.

The Chief Executive of Family Business Australia said:

The old legislation—

the Labor Party’s legislation—

was onerous. Family businesses were inclined to have to pay what they called ‘go away money’ to get rid of the disruptive or inappropriate employees.

The Labor Party voted against the interests of small business on 44 occasions. They voted against the removal of the Labor Party job-destroying unfair dismissal laws.

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