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

It is nice to stand and support the member for Mallee in this motion about the importance and significance of small businesses in our economy. At the age of 21 I started work in my family business, and I ran the Crossways Hotel in Enfield from that age until I decided to enter parliament. I was blessed to be able to give thousands and thousands of people a job. There is nothing better than looking into the eye of someone at a job interview and telling them that yes, there is a spot for them, whether it is a university student that is looking to pay board at home or have pocket money of a weekend to go out with friends or to supplement while they perform their studies to ultimately start their career—as is so often the case in the hospitality business and as was the case when I was growing up—or whether it is a single mum who is looking at ways to earn a wage from 10 am to 3 pm, when the children are at school, before going back and picking them up, or whether is it people at the other end of life. I was blessed to employ a lot of very experienced people from the hospitality industry that were finding it tough to find a job at that particular time in their life.

We are all ultimately local federal members of parliament. We may rise to be something in the ministerial rank or parliamentary secretary rank, but we are ultimately local federal members of parliament. It is our job to ensure that our local communities have the work they need for the stage of life that they are at, and the role that small business plays in that is vital.

The measures were actually passed—for the information of the member for Lilley—this morning, so there was no delay on the timing of it. The measures that were passed were so important. I want to give you one local example, as we have just had a week back in our electorates. There is a gentleman in my electorate named Pino Salerno. Pino and a group of his friends have agreed to take out a lease on a closed down rowing centre, an old function room. They come from a hospitality background; they run restaurants around other parts of New South Wales, but this would be their first operation in my electorate. Before our budget, he had a planned to open up his facility in a staged manner, which would mean there would be an increase of local employment over time. When I ran into Pino last week he told me our decisions—that were supported by those opposite, that have passed the Senate this morning—have facilitated him, now safe in the knowledge that the asset write-off is there, to ramp up the opening process. So instead of employing in the vicinity of 12 to 15 people in 12 to 18 months' time, there will be 12 to 15 people employed within the next three to six months.

What does that mean as a local federal member? It means there are 12 to 15 more people in my electorate who are not only earning a wage, earning a living and enjoying a better standard of life but, more importantly—and I know Pino's operations from elsewhere in Sydney—also forging a career with Pino and his business. I know that many of the people who run the establishments that my family owns, who run them day-in day-out, started as casual bar attendants—that is how they started a career. Small and family businesses are so often overlooked, but they give you a career path. Why these packages are so important is not only for that local aspect but also in the sector itself.

I say this a lot: if a PAYE wage earner loses their job it is a tragedy, and they do all that they can to get another job; if a small or family business owner loses their job, they most likely lose their home. The reality is they mortgage against their home to open and invest in their business. Like the tradie who is today's apprentice, who makes a pathway to buy his own van, tools and whatever he needs to have a go himself, these are the traditional pathways of small business—and over time some of those small businesses have become medium to big businesses.

This sector employs around 4½ million people—that is almost as much as medium- and large-sized businesses added together. There is no doubt that it is vital to our community. I am not interested in standing up here and bagging anyone; I am standing up here to praise the efforts of all of those involved. I hope that our package inspires more people to take the step from PAYE to business operator, because our country ultimately needs it.

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