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

I thank the member for Hasluck. His electorate has 10,700 small businesses. I actually feel like I have met most of them from the visits we have had over there and the small-business forums and interactions we have had that were organised by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. What has come through from all of those meetings is just how welcome and encouraging the small-business community is about the action we are taking to support their enterprise.

The Treasurer has outlined the transition in the economy and the challenges that are there. A renaissance in entrepreneurship, support for small-business men and women, getting behind the family and farming enterprises of our nation and of our economy, is at the heart of our agenda. This is not only to grow jobs and grow the economy but also to recover the jobs lost under Labor. We lost nearly half a million jobs in small business under Labor. In fact, under that period of Labor government, fewer small businesses ended up employing people, at the end of it, than they were at the beginning.

Our focus is on making sure the environment is right for small businesses and enterprising men and women to thrive and prosper in this economy, getting those conditions right to drive growth and job creation, putting incentives in place to encourage dynamism in the economy, agility, entrepreneurship, a preparedness to compete and invest. And we are getting there. We are making gains, and this deserves to be recognised. It is of great encouragement to small businesses right across our economy. Retail sales are up. Exports are up. Housing approvals are up. Residential dwelling construction—this is actually homes being built—is some 23 per cent higher than the rate of housing construction when Labor was last in office. Personal bankruptcies are down to a 20-year low. We are seeing investment right across all sectors of the economy, and the signs are very encouraging for the future.

In the member's own electorate, when I meet with his local small-business people, they tell me that there is a positivity in the air and optimism. Eddie Peters, from the Honda Shop in Midland, talks about the great budget package, those initiatives of tax cuts and incentives with asset write-offs that have not only benefited his business, directly, but also many of his customers—tradespeople; primary-industry producers—have seen a lift in opportunity and encouragement for their entrepreneurship.

We have more work to do. Jobs growth is there and small businesses are providing about half of those new jobs in our economy. We have seen the small-business share of the private-sector workforce actually increase, but there is more happening. There are the employee share schemes that we have repaired, given that Labor had messed that up and harmed that initiative.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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