Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

The member is saying it is all the state government's fault. Do not pretend to be the government, do not pretend you can do it, if you are not going to deliver it. In December the website for the relevant agency suddenly announced that the concessional loans would be available. In late January small business in the Blue Mountains still had not been told. The paperwork for them to actually get the loans still did not exist. So the member for Forde is true when he says: we will deliver concessional loans. Six months after coming to government and some six months after a disaster—just up the road from me—they will, when they get around to it, actually deliver concessional loans.

Let us look at their complete lack of action on assistance for small business affected by the closure of major manufacturers. We are likely to see tens of thousands of small manufacturers and small businesses go out of business because of the closure of those major manufacturers. We have not heard a word from this government—which professes to be all about small business—about what assistance it is going to give those small businesses to transition in this incredibly important time.

Let us look at the abolition of the instant tax write-off—a $3.2 billion slug on the tax bill of small businesses in this country through three actions, including the abolition of the loss carry-back scheme as of July last year, even though the legislation is not through the parliament yet. The government has not told anyone about it, and when this legislation does go through it will retrospectively change it. There are businesses now that are going about their business, with their financial plans and their investment plans done for the year on the basis of existing tax law, and the government, which is going to slug them with a $3.2 billion extra tax bill, has not bothered to tell them. The instant tax write-off is incredibly important. It was asked for by the Henry tax review, because, if you have had anything to do with small business, you will know that the depreciation schedules for small business are incredibly difficult. This measure actually allows a small business to claim an instant tax write-off for every asset worth less than $6,500, which means your new fridge, your new desks or your new computers. Then, of course, there is the tax write-off of $5,500 for vehicles. These are gone as of 1 January, even though the legislation is not through the parliament yet and even though there has been no attempt by the government to tell small business that this $3.2 billion slug is on its way for them—not a word from the government that professes to be for small business.

Let us look at the government walking away from the National Food Plan. This one has not had much coverage yet. The food plan that was introduced by Labor last year was absolutely welcomed by the agricultural sector, particularly the food processing sector. It looked at the whole agricultural sector from farm to plate and had a very strong strategy for developing those incredibly important food processing elements of the industry, which are growth areas—gone completely.

The agricultural white paper deals with farm gate profitability. The small business sector in agriculture is on its own, just like the small business sector that supports vehicle manufacturing and our major manufacturers and just like the small business sector in the Blue Mountains that was promised concessional loans. The government are still promising to deliver them at some point, six months later. This is a government with amazing rhetoric and an appalling reality.

Let us look at the government's plans for deregulation—the hoax of a repeal day that we are going to see coming up in the next month or so. In most cases, it is going to repeal regulation which is redundant and has no effect on anything, and we know that absolutely.

We also know that there are a couple of things that this government has in their sights for small business that will be incredibly damaging for small business. They are not out there consulting with small business; small business is not at the table on this like they promised. The government promised to have small business the table. We have not heard a word from the small business minister and certainly, from my conversations with business, there has been no attempt whatsoever to talk to them.

The first one is the Aussie jobs act. The member for Forde talked about how important it is for small business to get access to government contracts. The Howard government did nothing for 13 years on that. We did a great deal. We dramatically increased the number of small businesses that accessed government contracts. But there is another area: the commercial contracts—the $300 billion worth of building that is in the pipeline at the moment on major, mainly resource, projects through this country. The Aussie jobs act requires that a project which is worth more than $500 million have a strategy in place to share some of the work with Australian businesses. This government plans to abolish the Aussie jobs act. This government—which supposedly cares about small business, which has this plan in place and which is likely to do it next March—has not consulted with small business or invited them to the table and is about to do something that will shut out Australian businesses from one of the biggest booms we have seen in a long time.

If the member genuinely thinks that they are already shut out then perhaps, instead of abolishing the Aussie jobs act—which actually improves their ability—he could come up with an idea and implement it instead of walking into this House and saying, 'We've made commitments. We're really good for small business. Six months into government I've made commitments to the people of Forde'. You won; you are the government. It is about time you started delivering. We delivered more than you without the numbers, in a hung parliament. We had to negotiate every single piece of legislation through a whole range of different people to get anything through this House, and we managed to do it. The excuses that this government is coming up with for why it is all words and no action are truly appalling.

Let us look at the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, which is also in the sights of this government. The tribunal helps to ensure that owner-drivers, who incidentally are small businesses in every sense of the word, can be paid a rate which allows them to pay off their truck and drive it safely. They can insure, register and maintain their truck, and they can drive reasonable hours.

We all know, because we have seen the stories—the stories about a number of large retailers in particular—that the rates being paid to drivers without that protection are going down and down and that we are seeing ever more trucks on the road which are unsafe and that drivers are driving for far too long. It is an incredibly important piece of regulation for the small business sector and, once again, it is gone. Where is the consultation? Where is this promise that small business would be at the table? Maybe that is a commitment like all the other commitments. Maybe it is a commitment which says: 'At some point maybe you will be at the table, but not when this incredibly important piece of legislation goes before this House and certainly not in the lead up to it.'

This is an incredible hoax being perpetrated by this government—a government that six months in has not delivered anything worth talking about for small business and yet persists in propagating this myth that they are the government of small business.

See this speech in context