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

I thank the member for his question. The government obviously is concerned about the impact of the global financial crisis on small businesses. In moving decisively with our economic security statement and injecting $10.4 billion into the economy, one of the things that was on our minds was support for small business. Engaging in that kind of fiscal stimulus, ensuring that there was money in the hands of households, has an effect for small business, and we wanted to make sure that small business benefited from that economic security statement as well. On other matters involving small business, the government has invested in Enterprise Connect centres to assist small business. We believe that that is important. We also believe that it is important to make it easier for small business to engage in their GST tax accounting. This is a matter that my colleague the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy has been working on. So our policies and plans here are clear. We want to support small businesses. We understand that they are a backbone of the Australian economy, and consequently they have been at the forefront of our thinking as we have responded to the global financial crisis.

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