Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If this franchising question and the questions raised by this motion are so crucial, why is it that franchising does not get even one mention in the opposition’s small business package announced with great fanfare by the Leader of the Opposition on 6 April 2009? I happen to have that here with me, Deputy Speaker, and one can look at this so-called small business package and see that there is a heading about ‘Tax loss carryback’, a heading about ‘Superannuation Guarantee relief’, a heading about ‘OECD best practice regulatory burden’, a heading about ‘One-stop-shop regulatory portal’, a heading about ‘Support for family businesses’ and a heading about ‘Cabinet-level representation’. This package makes not one single mention of franchising as an area in which reform is needed, notwithstanding that this much-announced and heralded small business package of the opposition came some four months after the report of the joint standing committee.

And when one does go to look at the points in the so-called Small Business Action Plan of the opposition, they too—as does the motion here today—ignore the steps that have been taken to support small business by the Rudd government. So in calling, as the opposition does, for a program to be developed to provide support and advice for family business succession planning and business professionalism, the opposition would ignore the fact that the government has already introduced $46 million to fund 90 small business advisory services and business enterprise centres, $10 million in funding for a Small Business Support Line and $10 million in funding for the Small Business Online program.

The same could be said for each of the other supposed initiatives being announced here in April by the opposition, again not mentioning franchise at all, with the possible exception of the strange suggestion that the opposition is putting forward for superannuation guarantee relief, which would cost some $5 million over the forward estimates and do nothing for the 1.1 million non-employing small businesses in Australia. As for the suggestion that there should be cabinet level representation, why was that not implemented by the former government? The Minister for Small Business in the former government was never, of course, in cabinet. The motion and the speech we have heard from the member for Canning ignore the need for care in legislating in this area. (Time expired)

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