Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am laughing at the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, but I do thank her for her question. Can I make it very clear to members opposite that of course we value the work performed by all Australians. As I joked with the Leader of the Opposition before question time started, I have certainly valued the services of people who give manicures. And, as a matter of public record, I am very fond of hairdressers—one in particular! So I very much value the contribution of small businesses to the Australian economy.

Let me tell you what small businesses want when it comes to the Australian economy. They want a sense of being included in government policy making. And what is this government doing? We are including them in government policy making. My colleague the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy is doing this generally, but we are specifically doing it in the delivery of our fair and balanced alternative to the extremism of Work Choices. We are working with small businesses in a small business working group so they can give us the benefit of their expertise on questions that they are concerned about and have a view on, including of course unfair dismissals but also the burden of red tape that they object to in Work Choices. Let us remind ourselves that the self-styled advocates of small business over there gave small business an industrial relations system that means they are waiting months at the back of queues hundreds of thousands of agreements long—

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