Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member makes a reasonable point, which I would like to comment on. They have often scared business about putting their prices up. Small businesses operate in a very competitive environment, especially cafes and restaurants. If they put their prices up they will lose customers. So no small business wants to put surcharges on the menu because they know that risks customers going to other businesses. It is a very competitive environment, but we cannot have the minister coming in here and creating a false impression that small businesses are able to increase their prices as long as they can justify it and it is not misleading. It gets back to the point of this bill. The mistake was the original bill that this bill is amending. We had a catch-all provision under the old section 52 and it was not necessary.

I am happy to leave my comments there. The coalition is pleased to support this amendment because it undoes one of the most disastrous policies of this government we have seen. I am sure that after September 14 there will be many other examples as we start to undo the damage that this government has done.

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