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

I withdraw. It really reflects very poorly on this government that they have done this double-cross of the people of Australia on this constitutional issue. There is a strong no case and, yes, there is also a yes case. Both cases should be funded equally. I am very pleased that the Leader of the Opposition has written to the government and asked them to reverse that decision and make sure that both the yes and no cases are equally funded.

The other issue I would like to raise tonight is the extreme difficulty that our Australian retail sector is experiencing at the moment, especially our small and medium sized retailers. Many people I speak to are telling me that the trading conditions they are experiencing are the worst they have ever experienced in their lifetime. They are being squeezed by a lack of consumer confidence, increasing costs and increasing foreign competition from online sales. When it comes to falls in consumer confidence, why wouldn't we see falls?

We have a dysfunctional and divided government that is tearing itself apart. It is obsessed with internal squabbles rather than getting on with the job of governing the country.

We have also seen consumer confidence being hit by the longest election campaign in the nation's history. It is evidenced that when a federal election is called, it has an adverse effect on consumer spending and consumer confidence. Tragically, for the Prime Minister to have this long election campaign, knowing that there will be that extended effect on consumer spending and consumer confidence, is just another example of putting her interests ahead of that of the nation. There is also the fall in consumer confidence as a result of the carbon tax, which is making everyone's electricity rise in price. Let us not forget that in two weeks the carbon tax goes up. Of course retailers are being squeezed from increasing costs. They are having to pay higher charges themselves on their electricity bills. Every retailer requires good lighting for their store and they are now seeing that cost go up. Retailers often require their stores to be air-conditioned or heated in the winter. They are seeing those costs escalate and go through the roof.

On the distribution of goods and making deliveries, should this government be re-elected it plans to put their carbon tax onto diesel fuel, which will see the cost of diesel increase by 7c per litre, increasing the price of moving every good around our nation. One of the greatest cost increases that our small- and medium-sized retailers face is their retail rents, which keep going up. An analysis of retail rents in Australia compared to the rest of the world in terms of occupancy costs—that is, the amount of rent expressed as a percentage of the retailer's sales—found that Australia has the highest occupancy costs in the world for small- and medium-sized retailers. The reason for that is we have made some very bad policy decisions in this country in years gone by. We have decided that retail shopping centres should be protected from competition. We have decided that retail shopping centres can actually use the argument that a new competitor entering the market will harm them and therefore the competitor should be stopped. We have seen some disgraceful decisions.

In my electorate, there was the notorious Orange Grove affair. We had a fully functioning shopping centre that was well patronised by the local consumers. There were ample shops that employed over 200 people in an area of Sydney with high unemployment. We saw the Labor government of New South Wales, headed by former Premier Carr, current Senator Car, close that shopping centre down because he did not want competition with other areas. That was a tragic and mistaken decision. We need to have a close look at our retail sector. We cannot continue with these protections from competition, especially when retailers today are facing competition from online retailers, who have the advantage of being able to ship goods to Australia with lower costs and without any sales tax.

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