Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Dobell for this private member's motion. She is entirely correct that small business is the engine room of the Australian economy and the heart and soul of employment. It is very easy to say that, but as a small business owner and operator I know it very, very personally. It was on the day that I married my husband that we bought our first dairy and beef property and business. Debt and hard work were synonymous with what we had to do as small business people. I see this right around Australia wherever I go—the amount of commitment that small business people make to be able to engage. They often follow a passion. They follow a dream sometimes, or they are just really commercially focused. There are over two million actively trading businesses in Australia, and almost 96 per cent are small businesses.

I was interested in the comments of the member opposite about decisions made by government. I remember back when the mining tax was announced and, three to four months later, the very first iteration. I remember, when I was out and about in my electorate, the range of businesses from services to suppliers to the mining sector, even right down to the retail sector, who were all directly impacted. Two of those businesses disappeared within six months of that announcement—right down to a fencing contractor, who said the mid-cap miners had put their hands back in their pockets. He said, 'I've got eight people employed, and I've only got two weeks work left.' So the decisions made at this level have a real impact on small business right across Australia and are felt very, very directly.

Of course, we know that small businesses with fewer than 20 employees account for 46 per cent of all Australia's workers in the private sector. Small business is a major employer, offering opportunity to young people in part-time or full-time work. It is often the mums and dads in small business who do this and give young people a go. That means that small business employs 38.5 per cent of all Australian workers. It is why small business is so important to us as a government, and it should be important to everybody in this House—not to just say it. If you live it, if you invest and if you commit, you know that small business is really tough. It involves all of your time, all of your energy, all of your passion—and that does not even guarantee that you are going to stay in business. The commercial focus is required, but often decisions are made that can affect you quite directly.

We have an economic strategy to remove the burdens from business, to make not only those small businesses but the whole nation, because of that, more competitive and to drive more jobs and higher living standards for all Australians, as the member for Dobell has said, especially those in small businesses. The protections that they will actually achieve will be the same as for consumers when it comes to unfair contracts imposed by big businesses: $1.4 million to extend unfair contract relief from consumers to small businesses. Currently only consumers are protected from unfair terms in standard-form contracts. But small businesses have told us that they have also been subject to unfair terms in standard-form contracts, often presented as take it or leave it. Small businesses often have insufficient ability to negotiate changes to contracts.

We also need to increase certainty, confidence and productivity, and that is what is underpinning the $8 million to establish the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. This is part of our election commitment to establish a one-stop shop for small business. It is really important. If you are in small business, you are so busy working in your business that it is quite often difficult to work your way through all of the issues—all of the compliance—because it is tough to work on your business while you are full-on in your business. It is the small business people who are up at night doing the accounts and keeping up with all of the latest trends and issues—but also keeping up with their compliance. I think this is a very strong issue that we are offering small businesses: the reduction in the red tape burden.

As we heard, 21,000 new or changed regulations were having an impact. The number of businesses who literally said: 'Look. I am drowning under the weight of this. It is taking me away from my customers and from what I am actually here to do as a small business.' I think this is going to make a major difference to small business. We are committed to removing that burden. I commend the member for Dobell for this particular private member's motion.

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