Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Dunkley on one thing: that was the fastest speech I have ever seen delivered in this place. And why wouldn't it be? As the shadow minister for small business and as a person who is never, or very rarely, allocated a question in this place on small business matters, the member for Dunkley just assumed he would have a 15-minute speech this afternoon. He assumed that he would be leading the debate in this place on a very, very specific matter of public importance on small business. But, alas—and I feel for the member for Dunkley—this debate was led by the Leader of the Nationals. That is some sort of oxymoron or contradiction in terms—the Leader of the National Party leading a debate on an MPI.

I was intrigued that the member for Dunkley spent so much time—and he used a prop, so I hope you will excuse me for using one briefly—talking about this document: 'Our plan: real solutions for all Australians'. Maybe the reason the Leader of the National Party was given a guernsey is because his photo is on the front of that document. The member for Dunkley is missing. The opposition understood that with no member for Dunkley, the shadow minister for small business, on the front cover that they had better lead with the Leader of the National Party.

The member made a big deal about this document. This is my second prop. I will be very quick. Here is the plan: this one pager here. I will just go through it quite quickly. 'Helping small business'—there is a bit of a blurb about the importance of small business. We all agree. If there is one thing that both parties in this place seem to agree on, it is the important role that small business plays in this country. So say all of us. There is no argument there.

Then they talk about lowering taxes for small business. How are they going to do it? They are going abolish the carbon tax—surprise, surprise! They do talk about corporate tax, but there is no information and no detail about how this is going take place, be done or be funded. Remember that we have reductions in taxation, including for those in small business, linked to the carbon tax and the mining tax. Of course, they are going to get rid of all of those. It is the magic pudding again! Then they are going to reduce red tape for small business by a billion dollars. Can you imagine how the member for Dunkley or the shadow Treasurer in their offices calculated that on the computer or on the calculator, working out how they were going to reduce small business red tape and green tape by a billion dollars. I invite the opposition to allow their next speaker in this debate to explain how that has been calculated and exactly which regulation is going to be removed.

They have a crack at the tax office. That is sport for all of us, of course. The tax office were never hard on small business when they were in government—of course not! That never happened! I was the shadow Assistant Treasurer in this place and watched day by day as then Assistant Treasurers—both Mal Brough and now shadow minister Peter Dutton—walked in here correcting, day after day, tax bills they had amended and had to re-amend because of the adverse impact on small business and business more generally.

Then they are going to double the annual rate of small business growth. Sorry? They are going to double the rate of small business growth? So there are going to be four million small businesses by the end of the Abbott government's first term? I can only assume that is what that means.

They are going to review competition law. They had 11½ years in government to review competition law and did nothing. They will do nothing if they have another opportunity in the future. Of course, there is the old chestnut—extending unfair contract protection to small business. IR is always a big feature, but what they do not do, again, is give any detail, because we know it is back to Work Choices. They will go back to Work Choices.

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