Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying yesterday evening on this Export Market Development Grants Amendment Bill 2014, what is most important to Tasmania is Bass Strait. It is a critical link to the mainland and it is a critical link currently to international shipping services, which in the last five years have been absolutely decimated. In fact, they have been removed completely. One of the reasons for that is the cabotage arrangements that were in place by the previous federal government. I welcome wholeheartedly the comments made by the Prime Minister in this place this morning in announcing the repeal day next Wednesday and in relation to taking a serious look at the current cabotage provisions.

This has hurt my state enormously, more than any other place in Australia. A regional community that depends on shipping to move goods on and off the island has been hurt enormously. Unfortunately, the previous Minister for Infrastructure in my state, Minister O'Byrne, who was dealt a very harsh blow on the weekend and was not able to retain his seat of Franklin, spent three years doing nothing whilst exporters and businesses in my state were hurting. So anything we can do to support exporters is a good thing for my state.

I echo the words of Sally Chandler, who has spent much of her life advocating on behalf of and working with exporters in my state as a consultant. Sally Chandler suggests anything that supports exporters is very much welcomed. As she also point out, the export industry is not for the faint-hearted. It does come with challenges. Those people who are prepared to look beyond our shores, to take our goods and services to foreign climes—it is not for the faint-hearted and does involve risk. It involves risk every day, but their success ultimately becomes local success and ultimately their community's success. This is why exports are so important to our nation and to my state.

Governments can provide their support by supporting the export industries in a number of practical and tangible ways. I referred earlier in my speech to the free trade agreement with South Korea that was recently signed by the Minister for Trade and Investment. This is indeed an enormous benefit to many businesses and service providers within this country. The Export Market Development Grants Amendment Bill 2014 also does that in a practical way; it is indeed welcome. It goes beyond the $50 million election commitment that we made. We are a government that will keep our promises, and this is another indication that we are doing exactly that. It is indeed welcomed. It also proposes increasing from seven to eight the maximum number of export market development grants that can be applied for by one organisation, business or individual. This is a very practical enhancement of the existing scheme. Having worked for many years with customers in Asia—Japan, China and South Korea—I know relationships are important and that building relationships is critical. Unless the price is wrong, business never occurs on the first, second or third instance. Often it takes repeated visits and it takes repeated efforts. This practical extension of the scheme from seven to eight potential grants is indeed welcome.

Similarly, in terms of small businesses, reducing the threshold for eligible expenditure from $20,000 to $15,000 is indeed an enhancement that will help small business. It will help small business that is the backbone of our economy. It will help small business to be able to access these grants in a far more practical way. These are the people who fly economy; these are the people who do not spend their money on business class airfares. This practical reduction is another way that this bill will be an advantage to them. It reduces the current $5,000 deduction from the applicant's provisional grants to $2,500, and it provides for quicker payments of the grants in years of low scheme demand or where additional funding has been provided.

For an understanding of that, I would refer the House to explanatory item No. 7 within the notes attached to this piece of legislation. Where the department is quite aware of the fact that all of the money will be paid out in that particular year, it has the provision to be able to bring that balanced distribution date forward. This is a really big advantage for small business. This is about cash flow. This is a practical way to help businesses.

These grants have been in place for 30 years, and, indeed, they are a practical way of supporting small businesses. They often are supporting businesses that are getting into this space, that are looking to expand their businesses beyond our shores into the export market. It is really about helping businesses that are helping themselves, and this is very much something that is dear to my heart and dear to my party's philosophy around how governments should support businesses. They can use these funds for attending international trade fairs, for marketing products overseas or to bring potential buyers to Australia to see their product in its own environment. Obviously, product origin of food is increasingly important, but I have seen it also in the field in which I worked for many years—that is, exporting wool products. Whilst I spent that time in the market talking to customers, more often than not when I got those customers to come back to Tasmania, it was the producers themselves who were very best salesmen. They were the people who got the deal over the line. These are people like Julian and Annabelle Von Bibra, Peter and Ann Downie, Julian Cotton from the east coast, Adam and Granyre Greenhill, Jon and Isabelle Atkinson, Will and Nina Bennett and Frank and Prue O’Connor from Avoca.

Anyone who has been in business will know that if you do not have a marketing budget for international sales then you are way behind the eight ball. A diverse range of businesses in my electorate have benefited from this in the past 12 months. They include tourist businesses, agricultural businesses and pharmaceutical processing businesses such as TPI. Indeed, we are about to embark on another part of exporting our food produce. I am very excited and I know exporters within my state are celebrating the fact that we have a government in place that understands small business, that understands the importance of exports. I commend the bill to the House.

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