John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very excited to announce that we are launching Shop Small in my electorate of Calare tomorrow. Small businesses are the engine room of our economy, particularly the economy of Calare, and the coalition is committed to do everything we can to support them and help them take advantage of opportunities now and into the future. The Shop Small campaign is about encouraging locals across the electorate, whether they live in Bathurst, Orange, Parkes, Lithgow, Forbes, Blayney, Oberon, Millthorpe, Canowindra or Molong, to stand behind small businesses this Christmas.

In Calare we are spoilt for choice when it comes to small business. We have nearly 13,000 operating in our region. I can guarantee whether you after a heck of a good coffee, a Christmas present for your parents or something for yourself or the anklebiters, you will be able to find it in Calare. This campaign will not only remind locals to shop in town but it will also ask them to tell us about their favourite store. Calare residents will be able to head to my website and nominate their favourite business where they get well looked after when they go to shop. I ran this campaign last year and am glad to say it was a big success, with well over 100 local businesses nominated by their customers. It was great. I am proud to see the community get involved and give recognition to small business owners who know them, look after them and want to keep doing it. They work incredibly hard to provide these fantastic services to our community and also to create local jobs.

Small business has never been more important than it is now, employing over 4.5 million Australians and contributing $340 billion to our economy. We as a government understand this and that is why we have delivered our recent $5.5 billion Jobs and Small Business package. This includes an immediate tax deduction for small businesses for every eligible asset costing less than $20,000 purchased until the end of June 2017. We have also introduced 1½ per cent tax cuts for small businesses and a five per cent tax deduction for unincorporated small businesses.

It is a great opportunity for us to recognise the incredibly important role business men and women play in our community. Most of this is at their own risk—investing their savings and setting up a business about something they are passionate about or a unique idea. There is nothing more heartening than to see a young couple start out in their own business, running their own show and each day providing outstanding customer service and going above and beyond. Tomorrow I will be launching the campaign from two great small businesses in Orange. Jumbled is a fantastic retail business owned by Pip Brett, who is an incredible entrepreneur and also operates another successful retail business in Orange called iglou. Tomorrow I will also be at A Slice of Orange, which is run by two sisters, Lisa and Jess. They really do embody the concept of 'local'—only selling produce within a 100-kilometre radius of Orange.

I encourage everyone in Calare to get behind the Shop Small campaign. While small businesses might be small, their impact is huge. I would like to leave you with the final message of Shop Small and that is to think big—and that is not about the Melbourne Cup.

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