Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

It is pretty easy to describe the impact of the carbon tax on small business—horrendous! At a time when there is a challenging marketplace, and small business and enterprising people want to create more jobs, to secure more opportunities, they are laden down and held back by a needless tax which is not effective but acts as a disincentive for employment, which impacts on the cost structure of those businesses, which puts our businesses at a disadvantage when they are competing with international businesses that want the markets that we should be able to make our own, to secure job and economic opportunities for us. I was pleased that the member for Barker hosted me at a meeting with small business people in Mt Gambier. The information that came through there was just how tough things were in the local government area of Murray Bridge. The unemployment rate when the previous Labor government was elected was seven per cent. The most recent figure is 9½ per cent.

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