Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Small business is not for the faint-hearted. You cannot understand small business unless you have actually run one. Whilst I have heard lots of rhetoric and words coming from the other side about how they understand small business, I wonder how many people have actually run a small business. Innovation is driven by small businesses. Small businesses take ideas and, because of their flexibility, they can take those ideas into reality. If we are going to turn innovation into productivity, we need to have a strong and robust small business sector.

My question is, though: does risk equal the reward for small business anymore in the Australian economy? Roy Orbison used to sing Working for the Man. The end of it was: 'I'm gonna be the man; I'm gonna be the boss.' But I wonder now whether we in the Australian economy have got that much aspiration and whether it is actually better to be the employee than the boss. Better outcomes can be achieved by employees than bosses in a lot of cases. We really need to consider the aspiration of people who want to go into small business and whether it is worthwhile and ensure that we create the economic framework for that to happen.

The real workers are actually our small business owners and operators. Having run a small business from when I was aged 22 and self-employed I know what it is like to have sleepless nights. I know what it is like to have to fill in BASs to ensure that your workers are well catered for.

I employed a number of people and I thought, 'This is good; I can walk around and be the boss and take things easy,' only to realise that one of my employees was not able to turn up one day, so I got on the job and worked myself, shoring 120 sheep. It was pretty hard work, but I was making sure that my workers also knew that as the owner of a small business I am also a worker.

This issue is around infrastructure. I recently heard from a member opposite that the previous government had delivered all this wonderful infrastructure and now our government are not. But that is not true in my electorate. I look at the Sunraysia modernisation project in Mildura. The previous minister for water, Penny Wong, was buying water out of that irrigation community and shutting them down. They actually had to pull up all piping work, completely shut those blocks down for five years and give water back to the government. In contrast, our government have said that we believe in building infrastructure and in putting in security for small business to function. We have committed $103 million and the infrastructure is now getting built. You can come to my electorate and see the pipes. You can actually walk down the pipes. This is real infrastructure; it is the real stuff happening. It is saying to the community that we think there is a future for your small business, for your irrigated agriculture in this community and that we are prepared to build the infrastructure so your business can have the certainty to go forward.

We have to close the gap between what a small business owner can make and what an employee can make. The gap at the moment is so much that sometimes it is easier to be the worker than it is to be the small business owner. We need to ensure that those who take risks are those who have personal endeavour and who can receive the financial rewards from small business. There is too much administration burden on small business at the moment. There is an inability to dismiss employees. Ambulance-chasing lawyers are creating sleepless nights for small business owners, wondering whether they would lose their house, when they are doing their best to create a safe workplace. There is financial and regulation insecurity. We also need to ensure that there is payment security for small businesses. It is still a good time to be in small business. I still run a small business as well as sit in this chamber here. Interest rates are low. Currencies favour Australian businesses at the moment. Sea freight rates are low.

Finally, I believe we have a government in power which has many people who both run and have run small businesses and, as I end with the beginning, 'You cannot understand small business unless you have run one,' no matter what I hear from the opposition. The coalition, made up of the Liberal Party and the National Party, is full of people who both understand and have a passion to see Australian small businesses prosper.

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