Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I have a great privilege in seconding this terrific motion from the member for Dunkley. It was great to have the member for Chifley then speak in favour of the concerns raised in this motion. I will follow from what the member for Dunkley said earlier that we have supported the direction of the national business name register.

The member for Dunkley is the shadow opposition spokesman on small business, and has been the same shadow opposition spokesman on small business for some time now. I think in his time as shadow small business spokesman he has had six Labor opponents, which I think reflects the abilities of the member for Dunkley. He has been highlighting this issue for some time. It has been operating now for over 12 months and I, like many of my colleagues, have had numerous complaints to my office about problems with the system. One, in particular, led me, after consulting with the shadow small business minister, to write to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer about this issue on 8 March this year, raising concerns of a constituent of mine, Mr Eric Newman, who has been running a small business on his property for many years. The South Australian government, to put this in context, recently decided to change a roadside numbering system in South Australia, and therefore he had—

See this speech in context