Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There must be an air of despair across small businesses in Australia. There you heard the new minister. He is the minister for tertiary education, skills, science, research and—quick, we had better bolt it on—small business. In his first address to the parliament he is saying that everything is just peachy. He is saying, 'All is peachy in the big picture, and isn't that great for small business?' And he followed that by wind and bluster—an empty vacuous contribution saying that all this government can offer is more of the same.

Minister, you might have been in the job for five minutes and your average in the last four jobs might have been a little over three months, but let me share something with you: the last thing small businesses in Australia want is more of the same. They are tired of being taken for granted. They are disillusioned by your disinterest. It is the way this Labor government talks down to the men and women who mortgage their houses and show great courage to create opportunities for themselves, for their workforce and for the communities they are a part of, and the way this government talks only to big business and big unions, in the big government way that we just heard from this new small business minister, that is causing the disillusionment. This is why there is an air of despair among small businesses—and all this new minister can say is that there will be more of the same. That was exactly what they said at the last election.

I remember debating the then Minister for Small Business, five small business ministers ago. I remember debating him in Kevin Rudd's electorate in Brisbane. All he could say to the assembled audience was, 'We don't have a new small business policy, just more of the same.' They took no policy to the last election, were condemned by the small business community for being so disinterested in their concerns and they were treated accordingly by the Australian small business community in the way they voted at that election. Have they learnt anything from that? Absolutely not—they seem to have learnt nothing. They want to continue to demoralise the sector which, when it looks to Canberra, would like to see an ally, an advocate.

Small business hoped that at least the government might be ambivalent and not cause harm to small business, but decisions like the carbon tax have been designed to cruel small business, to punish them. They get none of the support, none of the hush money, none of the carve-outs, but they are told by this Gillard Labor government to suck it up or pass it on to their consumers, when small business know that life is not like that in the real world.

We have seen no new ideas from this government. This seems to be the pattern they will continue to follow. The small business community were hoping that the fifth small business minister in five years might show some interest in their concerns and their interests, but sadly we have seen just more of the same. In fact, the only contribution to small business success that this Gillard government has achieved is for the printing industry, as they repeatedly reprint business cards for small business ministers—four in the last 14 months! It is a printing-led recovery. I hope a small business actually gets some of that stationery and letterhead work, because that is all Labor have done. The only consistent record we have seen from this government about small business is that they are making it smaller.

Contrast that with the positive plan that the coalition has, a plan of real solutions. Not only is small business front and centre in the thinking of the coalition but also it is the centrefold. The centrefold of Our Plan: Real Solutions for all Australians shows example after example, commitment after commitment, measure and reform after measure and reform about what we need to do to get business back into small business, to restore hope, reward and opportunity. Contrast that with what we have just heard—more of the same. 'Everything's peachy. The Gillard government's got it all sorted and aren't we good to small business.' The minister quotes one person who may have been duchessed by an invitation to the Prime Minister's XI and they reach for that like a life raft when, everywhere else you look, every other informed, considered, rigorous commentary and assessment of the fate of small business paints a very different picture.

Let us look at it. Small business is having a tough run of it now and the government does not seem to recognise that, nor does it care. Small business confidence, business conditions, cash flow, profitability, employment: they are all in negative territory, if you look at the latest National Australia Bank quarterly small business survey. Ask CPA Australia. Small business confidence in Australia is significantly less than it is in Indonesia, in New Zealand and in Malaysia. In fact, a recent survey revealed that only six per cent of small businesses in Australia think the Gillard government is doing a decent job, so 94 per cent do not think they are doing a decent job. You can see why. Small business has been burdened with the weight of the carbon tax.

In terms of the small business contribution to employment, when the Howard government left office more than half, 51.3 per cent, of the private sector workforce was employed in small business. There were more than five million people earning a livelihood out of small business—those courageous small business men and women who create opportunities for themselves and for others. What is the record today? The Leader of the National Party presented the figures up to June 2009, but I can go further. The most recent survey shows that there are 4.8 million people employed in small business, substantially less than the more than five million who were employed when the Howard government left office, and that is after five and a bit years of this government. They boast about trend growth, they boast about population growth and they boast about the size of the economy. In that context, not only in percentage terms but in nominal terms, small business employment has decreased. Today it is 45.7 per cent of the private sector workforce. There are over 10,000 fewer employing small businesses and you see this at a time when there is seven per cent growth in the population and 19 per cent growth in GDP, yet small business continues to contract. We see record levels of insolvency, a falling off the cliff in the number of small business start-ups, and the government wants to pat themselves on their backs for their performance. With red tape there are more than 200 new or amended regulations for every one that has been repealed.

The cost of small business finance is increasing. The Labor government does not want to turn itself to the fact that the average standard variable small business loan rate under the coalition was 8.89 per cent. It is now 10.16 per cent—with the margin on top of the cash rate that real people had to pay. No-one pays the cash rate for their finance. In terms of the spread, the real rate that they are paying above the cash rate has doubled. Where is the reward for those men and women who mortgage their houses to secure their finances? Do you see improved availability of finance? No. Do you see improved affordability? No—it has actually gone the other way.

On Labor's watch the whole banking sector has seen a further gravitation to the big banks, and non-bank and second-tier lenders, a crucial area from which small business gets its finance, have shrunk in the economy. That is why we have committed to conduct an inquiry into the competitiveness and stability of the financial services sector. There have been four ministers in this rotation and a tax office war on independent contractors; 5,800 small businesses targeted by the ATO have simply paid default tax assessments because they could not challenge or fight or afford to correct the ATO's mistakes. That is not our line; that is the inspector-general's assessment. And now there is another $390 million in a campaign where the ATO is going to go after small business.

In the MYEFO, where the government had its last look at the economy, the only mention of growth in small business and positive initiatives was what was happening in China.

Instead, there was nearly $400 million allocated to go after small business in another tax office press which will give small business the burden of trying to paper over the holes in this government's woeful budget.

This is a time when small business needs to be celebrated. It needs to be respected. It needs to be recognised and acknowledged, as it was in the Leader of the Opposition's National Press Club address where he said, 'Thank you'. This was a clear recognition of the men and women of small business who take risks to create opportunities in this country. Contrast that with the Prime Minister: there was no mention whatsoever of small business in her speech. Believe me, that was recognised and acknowledged.

So where are we now? We have got Labor's recent couple of copycat, watered down policy announcements. Labor have lifted policy commitments made by the coalition, hashed their implementation and now want to pat themselves on the back for what they have done. That is what we have got. We can contrast that with the clear plan that the coalition has outlined: cut the carbon tax to give small business a chance to compete; cut the red tape; improve paid parental leave to put small employers on equal footing with the big behemoth employers and with the public sector; streamline the way in which superannuation contributions are handled; extend unfair contract protections to small business transactions; have an ombudsman with real teeth, not this shingle they have dangled around of a small business commissioner—let me correct the minister: it was in 1999 when the first Small Business Commissioner was appointed to the ACCC, and that was by Minister Reith and not as he sought to characterise it—a fair treatment of independent contractors to end this attack on self-employment that is going on under this government; a cabinet level minister; representation on key regulatory and economic bodies; a long overdue review of the competition laws, which has not been done for 22 years ago since Professor Hilmer did it. It is nothing of interest to the Labor government. They have got nothing to offer. Small businesses know the coalition is there for them. (Time expired)

See this speech in context