Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I have the opportunity to speak on this motion in relation to small business. A clear contrast is shown between a member who is passionate about small business—who understands small business and realises what small business can do for the community—and the member for Rankin. The position taken by that member is nothing more than an ALP fraud. The ALP, the Australian Labor Party, do not care in the slightest about small business. When you look at the issue of small business, it is not about listening to what they say; it is about observing what they actually do.

What is the Labor Party’s response to small business? They of course have the ability to create hot air and the obligatory rhetoric. But when you look at what they propose to do, you wonder: ‘How is that going to impact on small business?’ I have to say that when I question people in my electorate, they recall the time when Labor was last in power. They certainly recall the negative impact that 21 per cent, 22 per cent and 23 per cent interest rates had on their businesses. They do not look too fondly on Labor’s reign in charge of the economy. They remember what high inflation did to the economy. They remember what high unemployment did to their customer base. They are very aware of the contribution that the Australian Labor Party made to small business.

When we move forward to 2007 and look at the suite of policies which are going to be embraced by members opposite in pursuit of improving the lot of small business, we see that one would have to go a long way before finding a better example of how out of touch they are than the proposal by the Australian Labor Party to repeal the unfair dismissal legislation. They should answer: ‘In what way does dragging a small business owner down to a tribunal to sit there all day and waste time affect small business? In what way does it improve small business for a small business owner to perhaps have to pay $5,000 go-away money to someone who is shonky or stealing from the business?’ That is what the Labor Party are about.

The Labor Party are not about supporting the sorts of people who make an organisation strong and help small business to grow. They are about supporting the members or the employees of an organisation who have no interest in that organisation. They are interested in looking after the philanderers and the go-slows. People who are in small business know that it is a very competitive environment, and everybody involved in that small business has to work hard. There is no room for Labor’s proposal to wind back the unfair dismissal legislation. There is no room in small business for people who do not have the interests of that small business at heart. It is about time the Labor Party woke up to that fact. It just shows how out of touch they are and how out of touch the member for Rankin is in relation to this matter.

When you look at the issue of the Lilac City Motor Inn, you see a family-run small business with hardworking people. They have worked very hard to build up the goodwill and the patronage that supports that business. My understanding from reports of the staff is that they are very happy working there. The staff of that institution are very supportive of their employers; it is a good place to work. So what does the Deputy Leader of the Opposition do? She picks a name out of the phone book and decides to trash that business. I can imagine that small business owners must be living in fear that perhaps the Deputy Leader of the Opposition might open the phone book on swimming pool operators and pick one, saying: ‘Yes, X and Y swimming pools; it is time to trash them today. And when we’ve finished trashing the swimming pool industry, we will turn to another page of the yellow pages.’

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