Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the motion moved by the member for Mallee in support of small business. Obviously, any member of parliament would support endeavours that make sure small business flourishes. Despite the rhetoric from those opposite, I am proud to go through the strong connections the Labor Party has with small business. I have nearly 19,000 small businesses in my electorate, many of them doing great things. In fact, last week I went out and toured EGR—not really a small business, I suppose, with 600 or 700 employees throughout the world. They develop automotive products, building products and retail display products. If you look on my Facebook page, you will see a photo of me standing there with Rod Horwill and Shane Butler. We are looking at a fender for a Volkswagen car, made on Evans Road in Salisbury in Queensland and then sent over to Germany. It goes on German cars that are then distributed throughout the world. I am looking at that fender, because inside it it says 'Made in Australia' in proud writing. It was great to meet with Rod and understand that we should do all that we can to make sure that Australia continues to manufacture and to compete with the world.

That is why I am here with the member for Lilley. I was proud to be a part of the government that did so much for small business: the instant asset write-offs, the loss carry-back, the accelerated depreciation for cars—all those great business initiatives that were rolled out under the Labor government. However, I am sad to see that the Liberal Party, when they came to power, automatically got rid of those initiatives. Small business thrives on certainty. What did they do? It was not mentioned before the election, but after the election there was a complete turnaround, a volte-face, and they cut certainty for small business. And we saw how that flowed out. We have seen consumer confidence and business confidence dry up after that horrific budget visited on the people of Australia. Why did they do that? We have had no apology.

After 20 months of this horrific policy being visited on small business, we have seen their response today; they have taken Labor Party policies back to the Senate. For 20 months, we have had small business suffering. We had a budget last year that effectively put the foot on the throat of small business. And then they walk around saying, 'We have restored what Labor had in place'—without an apology. This was only a political act. Why would the Liberal Party, supposedly the friends of small business—we have had speaker after speaker talking about the small business measures bill and how friendly the Liberal Party is with small business—bring in a piece of legislation that wreaked havoc on small businesses in my electorate and throughout Australia. Why would they make such a political, opportunistic decision unless they are only concerned with power. I know that is a horrible accusation, but when I see this sort of political chicanery I think the Liberal Party is a soulless husk of a party encasing only the idea of power motivating their decisions. I would like to have one member of the government apologise for what they did to small business back in last year's budget.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

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