Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can indicate to the member for Mitchell that, prior to coming into the parliament, I was a small business owner and operator, so I have a great fondness and appreciation for small business operators, particularly those who operate in my neck of the woods in the south-west of Sydney. I do not need to take a walk around my electorate to talk to small business owners; I know on a first-name basis the ones who beat a path to my door as they try to work through the various regulations of this government as they continue to produce the goods and services ever so necessary to the proper functioning of our economy.

Small business is a critical section of our economy. It is the employment generator. In the south-west of Sydney I have never made any bones about the fact that employment generation will come through expanding the role of small business and providing suitable incentives for them to invest further funds to grow their businesses. Through such measures in our suburban communities, local jobs and economies grow, which is obviously a very good thing for those local economies and for the economy generally.

It is easy for members of this House to stand up and profess their deep and abiding affection for small business operators, and we have seen much of that so far in this debate. But, quite frankly, it is a lot harder to back those words up with action that really does assist the lot of small business. Over its 11 long years in office, this government has often professed its affection for the entrepreneurial spirit of small business operators but has systematically failed to back that up. It has left many small business operators shaking their heads and calling for a little less conversation and a little more action when it comes to dealing with their concerns in running their businesses in the community.

From the outset, I would like to make it clear that Labor is supporting the amendments to the tax laws contained in the Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business) Bill 2007. Labor supports improvements to the relative position of small business operators because Labor support small business. I also support the amendment proposed by the shadow minister for small business, the member for Rankin, and I will speak more about that amendment later. But let there be no confusion: Labor has always supported small business. Labor knows how important small business is and is willing to take appropriate steps to assist it—not the half-hearted steps that occur around election time. And what are seeing here? Once again we are seeing steps being taken by the government around election time.

This government’s position on small business has been all about industrial relations so far. The one big thing that small business people locally constantly say to me is that they take umbrage at the fact that, as small business operators, they are now classified by this government as employers of anywhere from zero to 100 people. That is something that this government has brought on small business. It has used small business as the stalking horse for the GST and as a Trojan horse for industrial relations. It surprised me to hear that one of the main spokespeople on the industrial issues facing small business was Peter Hendy, the once personal adviser to the former minister for industrial relations, who runs the largest employer based organisation in the country. He has a vested interest in small business industrial relations laws because he knows that employers of from one to 100 people covers 98 per cent of all Australian companies. That is why this bogus position has been put out by small business operators. Everyone spoke about small business in terms of industrial relations except nobody really took the time to talk to small business.

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