Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise this morning to speak on the Australian Business Growth Fund Bill 2019, and as I do it's good to see some clouds overhead in Canberra. I understand that back in my hometown of Sydney we're looking at about nine days of substantial rain, which I'm sure will be great news for all those small businesses across the country that have been looking for the drought to slowly come undone. Even though there's a long, long way to go these recent rains are most appreciated.

This bill introduces new legislation that requires the Commonwealth government to participate in forming and acquiring shares in or debentures of the Australian Business Growth Fund, and the bill appropriates $100 million for this purpose. The small-business growth fund was an investment model established in the UK, and which has also been adopted in Canada, where a company collectively owned by financial institutions provides long-term capital and business guidance to small and medium-sized businesses. One important point there is that it's not just the capital—although the capital is very important, and almost every small business in the nation is always looking for more capital—but also the business guidance it gives. It's very important for many small businesses to have their investors providing that oversight and some guidance.

(Quorum formed) I will not overly delay the House on the vote on this most important legislation but I will add that this legislation shows the government's commitment to supporting Australian small business. We on this side understand that governments do not create jobs. The only time that we in government create jobs is when we take money from small business and spend it. It is those small-business entrepreneurs who get up every morning and who put their own capital on the line and go out who create the wealth that we in this nation need to pay for our hospitals, our schools, our aged care, the things we need for kids with disability. It is the wealth created by the small businesses of this nation that pays for all these things. We must never forget that. We are not the creators of jobs here in Australia; it is those small-business people who go out there every single day. With this legislation we show that we in the coalition are right behind them.

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