Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the parliamentary secretary for seconding this motion. I speak often in this place about the value and importance of small and family businesses and the role they play in our economy. Today is another example of that, with this motion. I often say that I am a proud third generation Western Sydney publican, and I will go back to being that when the people of Reid see fit. But I know the frustrations, and one of my motivations in turning my back on my career for a while and doing this—and I do not consider this a job for me; I had a job and I can go back to it at any stage; I am lucky—is the chance to make a little bit of a difference. This is one of the areas that I try to do that in whenever I can.

One of the criticisms I always had outside of this place, before election, was the fact that this chamber and this parliament do not understand small and family business well enough. This motion today is a good example. It is often said that the Liberal Party is the party of small and family business and that the Labor Party is the party of the worker. I want to try and debunk that myth a little bit today, because I know from my 23 years in my family's business that the most valuable asset we have today is our staff—always has been, always will be. My grandfather taught my father that and my father taught me. I note that, of our five speakers following me today, Craig Kelly comes from a small and family business background; Nola Marino is a dairy famer, a family business person; and Andrew Broad, the member for Mallee, is another farmer and family business person. Yes we are, and we should be, the party of small business but small- and medium-sized business in this country employs, as at the 2011 census, 70 per cent of the workforce. That is why it is important that we as a party and as a government not only understand small business but do all we can to foster it so that people can continue to take on bank debt, back themselves, and employ people in an environment and an economy in which they have certainty.

We talk about jobs created and jobs lost. It is important to note that if people who run a small and family business lose their job they most probably lose their home. They take on bank debt using their home as an asset to secure it—and then they employ people. One of the biggest problems we had—a hidden problem—coming out of the GFC was the casualisation of our workforce. That is not spoken about enough. Small and family business operators in that uncertain period moved permanent staff into a casual capacity, and they did it to give themselves the flexibility of reducing staff when they needed to and working more themselves. What came next was truly abhorrent—the carbon tax. This crept into every line item in the profit and loss statement of every business in Australia, irrespective of size, but it was particularly troublesome for local small businesses in my electorate. The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker will tell you that what happened was that the business operator either worked more hours themselves and decreased their staff numbers or reduced the hours that they operated—they closed on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and what have you. The spinoff of this is a decrease in casual labour opportunities. We often talk in this place about youth unemployment. Here is the kicker: casual work is where our youth most often find their start. Whilst they leave school and move into trade training or university, a casual job is what they do to keep living and getting out of the hair of their parents. As I said in my maiden speech, most people who stand up in this place who come from a family business background talk about their first job being in the family business. I am no different.

My major frustration pre-politics—I guess it continues today—is that time and time again those opposite stand up and argue to be for the worker when they quite clearly do not have an understanding that if you are for the worker you are for small and family business. In 2000 Kim Beazley famously said:

We have never pretended to be a small business party. The Labor Party has never pretended that.

In 2006 Craig Emerson said:

Labor, as a party, was born of the trade union movement. We are proud of our bonds with the trade union movement …

During the six years we had of Labor government, we had a litany of small business ministers that did not have any history in small business themselves, and it was not even a cabinet role. The first thing the Prime Minister did when we moved to the government benches was to make, as was our pre-election commitment, the Minister for Small Business, the Hon. Bruce Billson, a member of his cabinet team—as that minister should be, given the significance of the employment opportunities provided by small business. Even today the trade union movement is arguing for holiday and sick pay for casual employees. This is a false argument, and it is frustrating. I know that in hotels permanent workers earn $18.64 an hour. As casuals they earn $23.30. The holiday pay, the sick pay and the leave pay is factored into the increased casual rate. For Ged Kearney and her mates at the ACTU to argue differently is dishonest and deceitful. Any move to do this will put further pressure on local businesses in Reid, and it must be resisted—as we are resisting it—on behalf of businesses given that that is where 70 per cent of the jobs in this economy are created.

The Abbott government have already moved to do a lot, but there is a lot more to do. We made a heap of promises pre-election, which we are starting to deliver. We appointed a dedicated small business minister in cabinet, which I have already alluded to. We abolished the carbon tax, which most definitely gives the businesses in Reid a chance to be a lot more competitive and employ more people. The Hon. Josh Frydenberg, now Assistant Treasurer, in his time as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister led the charge to reduce red and green tape—$2 billion, although our promise pre-election was $1 billion, we have delivered more than twice that in our first 16 months in government, but there is a lot more to do. If you look at the employment in this sector under the six years of the Labor government and you want to see what the impact of their policy decisions were, there were 519,000 jobs that went missing in the small business category. That is about 1,600 a week.

Minister Billson has worked hard on reforming the national franchising code. Once again, a logical place, franchising, where people make the move from employee to employer, but they need certainty in legislation and Minister Billson is delivering on this. The competition policy review: the government has taken important steps towards ensuring that the competition framework is effective for all businesses by undertaking an independent root and branch review, and there will be more announced on this as we proceed in government. The Japanese and Korean free trade agreements came into effect in December and January; China's will come into effect later in the year. These are amazing opportunities for small and family businesses to reach out to the other side of the world and deliver products and services and create jobs. We have established a $482 million Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Program. There is the infrastructure in Western Sydney, the hard capital infrastructure, with Premier Baird; the second Sydney airport, the 35,000 jobs that this will create. The road infrastructure with WestConnex, which is the most important piece of transport infrastructure to be delivered, will make a massive difference in the lives of all within Reid and unlock Parramatta Road for them.

We can never talk in this place about the role that small and family business plays enough. We should not only do so at every opportunity but we should also understand that it is the major economic driver—always has been, always will be—of our economy. We should aim policy to help improve the lives of not only those in the business but also the lives of those that they employ. I commend this motion to the House.

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