Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Just to reinforce a point that the member for Dunkley made: when the minister gives his response to this answer we will be seeking that he withdraw the completely false statement that he made that we on the coalition side were suggesting the BECs are ridiculous, when in fact what we were chuckling at was the ridiculous statement that was made by the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. I invite the minister to withdraw those comments when he answers the question.

I turn now to the questions that I want to ask the minister about the business enterprise centres. I was first going to inquire what the services that the BECs will be offering are, but the minister has already addressed that. I invite the minister to address each of the following questions in turn. If he cannot answer them in turn, I would be looking for him perhaps to provide answers to these in some other forum or in writing. I acknowledge the minister’s agreement to do that and I am grateful for it.

My questions are these. What services being offered by the business enterprise centres are different from the services that were offered through the Small Business Field Officer Program? What are the locations of the 36 business enterprise centres that the Labor Party has chosen to fund? I note that the minister indicated that the Labor Party did in fact choose which of the 36 centres would be funded. Could I also have a breakdown of how many of those 36 centres are in Labor electorates and how many are in coalition electorates? In addition, of the 36 BECs that are being funded, are all 36 already established or are some of them new centres that are yet to receive funding and, if so, will that be in the near future? The minister also indicated that 36 BECs will receive between $100,000 and $350,000 a year. On what basis has the exact yearly grant been calculated for each BEC? Has the department undertaken any analysis or investigation as part of determining the exact grant given to each BEC? And what analyses or investigations were conducted or undertaken by the department to determine whether this program would be effective?

In addition, on what basis was the selection of the 36 out of 107 BECs determined by the Labor Party when they came to power? What analysis or submissions did the department conduct, receive or consider when determining how the amount of funding was to be provided to this program? How many small businesses contacted the department or minister requesting the introduction of this program? Did the direction for funding, including the amount, originate in the minister’s office and, if not, whereabouts in the Labor Party did it originate? What is the exact status of contracts between the department and each BEC, and have the contracts been executed? How will the success of the BEC program be measured? Finally, what relationship has the department had with the government’s Small Business Working Group in the preparation of these service contracts and the initiative for BECs?

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