Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

That is a pretty long list of questions that the member for Dunkley has advanced there, but I will do my best to work my way through them.

The starting point is that the most important thing for small businesses, medium-sized businesses and large businesses, and the workforce generally, is that the economic settings are right. As the national accounts evidenced today, our economy is growing; real GDP is growing at an annualised rate of 2½ per cent. Very, very few economies internationally, particularly advanced economies, can claim such a growth rate. We have had, I think, two decades of continuous growth. We avoided the global financial crisis, we made investments in jobs and growth, and that same approach is, of course, reflected in this budget. I do not know that the coalition's strategy on fiscal policy would be of assistance to small business if the strategy involves cutting deeply and imposing austerity measures in the circumstances we are in. That would have a contractionary effect and it would be felt very sharply by the small-business community in particular. So the government has taken the view in fiscal strategy as a general approach in the budget, as we have in recent years, of making the investments that are necessary to continue economic growth and continue a positive environment for investment.

What else is relevant to small business? Small businesses are benefitting not only from the annual economic growth we are experience but also from the significant fall in interest rates that we have seen in recent years. The official cash rate now stands at 2.75 per cent. We have got a stable inflationary environment, as I indicated earlier, with inflation at around 2.5 per cent—the mid-point of the RBA target range—and we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. The member pointed to some employment numbers and issues. Again, the important thing at a macroeconomic level is that, since 2007, almost one million jobs have been created in our economy—and at a time during which the international circumstances have been extremely adverse—and growth has been experienced across the economy, not just in resources and resource related sectors.

On issues specifically to assist business, there are a range of measures in the budget that have been supported that I would draw the member's attention to. I referred earlier to the $1 billion investment plan, A Plan for Australian Jobs, which will assist small businesses grow and compete in global markets and create jobs. One of the features of that plan is to oblige the proponents of major projects worth more than $500 million, for example, to prepare Australian industry participation plans. These are plans that can and will benefit small and medium size enterprises gain access to the work that is going to be contracted in goods and services not only through the construction phase of major projects but also in their operational phase subsequently.

As part of the plan, also relevant to small and medium size enterprises, the government is investing about $350 million in Venture Australia, a venture capital fund. It will be matched dollar for dollar in the private sector to stimulate Australia's venture capital market. The experience with SMEs, in particular those that are innovative and have ideas and technologies they want to commercialise, is that they often have trouble getting access to the venture capital that is necessary to help them commercialise their circumstances. That is a significant initiative that has had bipartisan support over the years, but the government has invested another $350 million in it, with a track record of success.

There is also in the budget a new $27.7 million Enterprise Solutions Program to assist small and medium size businesses gain access to public sector markets; the idea being that, when a government—and in this case, obviously the Commonwealth—intends tendering or contracting for a particular good or service, there will be a fund that will be accessible to SMEs to help them successfully develop the materials and do the work to be able to tender in a public sector procurement process. That is important. I can return to the issue again, but there is also very important funding of $500 million for up to 10 industry innovation precincts that, in particular, will be important for SMEs. I can return to that issue shortly, and there are other measures that I can also turn to in relation to small business.

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