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

Thank you to the members opposite for their encouragement! I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his question and also the excellent input he is providing to our government's small business and jobs package. The great promise of our country is that subsequent generations will have it better than those who were here before them. That is what the Intergenerational report maps out. It talks about the great achievements of this country and the men and women who have built a great nation and seen improvements in living standards and income over decades. It also makes the very simple and clear point that by taking sensible steps today we can care for and prepare for our future. We can underwrite our living standards and we can make sure that the great promise of our country is delivered to those who follow an our footsteps. It highlights why getting the budget on a sustainable footing is important and that we need to boost our productivity and we need to lift workforce participation.

Exhilarating our productivity is going to be a big ask, given the ageing of our population and the dynamism in our economy. We are ready for it, our nation is up for it and this government is putting in place the very policies that are needed to support that. Small business is the engine room of our economy. There will be small business men and women across our continent who will play a key role in boosting productivity, supporting participation and raising living standards into the future. Yes, there will be demographic changes. There will be changes and transitions in our economy. There is the digitisation of our economy and the way that we live. There are new markets and hundreds of millions of new customers. All of that is very exciting and challenging at the same time. What can we do as a parliament and as a government? We can put the right settings in place so that we can take those opportunities, make them our own and raise our living standards and our quality of life into the future.

This is a very substantial report that confirms much of what the government is doing. In the report, it says that many things influence our productivity, such as the type and extent of regulation. This is why we have been working so hard to remove red tape. It speaks about the levels of competition. That is why we have got a once-in-a-generation reform and review of the competition laws, headed by Professor Harper. It is about incentives for businesses to operate efficiency.

We are doing the very work that responds to the prescription needed to prepare today for the opportunities and quality of life into the future. I think the Australian men and women of small business are ready for this challenge, but they need this parliament to get behind their efforts and their enterprise. I know that on this side of the House we are doing all we can to energise enterprise. I hope those opposite see that this is a call to them: if they cannot contribute to that effort, at least get out of the road so that we can get on with it.

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