Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance in the House today because we have a crisis of confidence in our local economy. We have a crisis in business confidence and we have a crisis in consumer confidence. In the small business sector we are seeing sales collapse, we are seeing businesses closing, we are seeing people walking out on their life's work, we are seeing buildings left vacant and we have got the carbon tax driving this uncertainty. We have got business people saying that these are the worst business conditions in living memory.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House the words of Howard Morrison, a very competent business man who runs a shop called Morrisons Electrical Mega Store in Coffs Harbour in my electorate. The Morrisons have been in retailing for three generations and operate a very good outlet. Howard and his son Garth run a very good operation. Howard said: 'On the home front, interest rates, fuel, food and electricity are all up about 30 per cent. If you are still on your feet, the knockout blow in the form of the carbon tax is on the way.' I think that is what a lot of small business people are thinking: the knockout blow is on the way. They are hanging on by their fingernails. They are facing rising costs of business operation at the same time their sales are falling and this government, because it does not understand business, particularly small business, is ignorant of that fact and is introducing a carbon tax at a time when the small business sector can least afford it.

I was interested to see the member for Lyne out in the media on 1 July after we saw an 18 per cent increase in electricity prices being levied by the local electricity distrib­uter on the North Coast. It is not a small price rise by any stretch of the imagination and the pizza shop to which the previous member referred would certainly be reeling from an 18 per cent increase in their electricity bill. The member for Lyne was letting the electorate know how outrageous this 18 per cent increase in electricity is—quite rightly so, it is an outrageous increase. But I ask the member for Lyne: if you have just highlighted to your electorate the difficulties they face as a result of an 18 per cent increase in electricity prices, why would you make the situation worse? Why would you add to that difficulty?

We have a situation in his electorate on the North Coast where we have seen tourism slow because of the high Aussie dollar, we have seen rapid increases in the cost of living eroding the spending power of local families, and we see the property sector is very slow at this time. The member for Lyne is going to be effectively legislating to put greater cost imposts on the small businesses he is representing. Businesses in his electorate are suffering and households are suffering, yet he is prepared to come into this House and advocate against the interests of those households and against the interests of those businesses.

When I speak to national chains they actually tell me that business conditions are difficult out there, but they are particularly difficult on the North Coast. Their North Coast outlets are underperforming some of their other national outlets. We do not have a mining industry driving our economy. We depend on small business. We depend on the property sector. We depend on the health and education sectors. We have an economy that is very much locally focussed without many large employers and we need to support our small business sector. This carbon tax is going to hit our small business sector very hard indeed.

I think the very simple action that the people of Lyne are asking for, as they are in the electorate of Cowper and as they are in the electorate of Page, is to oppose this tax. They are saying: 'We are struggling. As business people we are barely hanging on. Don't give us another impost at this time.' You can have all the arguments you like about the environmental benefits of one approach or another to the issue of carbon pollution, or the increase in carbon dioxide levels, but the bottom line is that small business cannot take any more pain.

I do not know what the member for Lyne is going to say to the people who have been forced to walk out of their business as a result of the new carbon tax coming in. I do not know what he is going to say to the people who cannot afford to turn their lights on at night because of the carbon tax. I do not know what he is going to say to the young job seeker for whom employment opportunities are extremely limited and who walks around the streets of Port Macquarie or Taree handing resumes over the counter to local businesses only to hear that they are actually putting off staff and cannot afford to hire any more staff. What is the member for Lyne going to say to those people? They need his help to stand up for them in this place and ensure that small businesses, a major generator of employment in his electorate, is not further burdened by price rises. They are looking to their local member to protect them from this tax. They are looking to their local member to support them. Local businessmen are looking for help from their local member and they have enunciated to me that they are not getting that help. As a result of that, the state member for Port Macquarie has actually invited the Nationals to Port Macquarie to talk with local businesses who feel let down by their federal member.

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