Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022. This legislation is about creating opportunity and fostering entrepreneurial spirit, which should be encouraged wherever possible—and opportunity was the theme of my maiden speech. The prosperity of my own electorate of Nicholls is founded on that great Australian ideal of having a go. Sometimes it's also about getting a go—or, as our egalitarian streak demands, getting a fair go. And the coalition believes in a fair go. We transformed the way employment services are delivered with the introduction of Workforce Australia bringing together the Department of Education, Skills and Employment's workforce employment skills initiatives under one single identity. Workforce Australia replaced jobactive and the current employment services network and has delivered more personalised services to better target jobseeker needs, investing in those jobseekers who need it and making greater use of digital technology.

The bill, which I'm happy to support, is a result of that change led by the previous coalition government. 'Jobs, jobs, jobs' was the mantra for the coalition government and it remains the case of us in opposition. We are passionate about getting Australians off welfare and into work, so much so that when we left office in May 2022 the unemployment rate nationally was at a 50-year low, just 3.9 per cent. It has since fallen to 3.5 per cent, irrefutable proof that the new government inherited a strong economy that on so many measures had already returned to, or exceeded, pre-pandemic levels. During its time in government the coalition helped 1.8 million Australians into work, with 1.5 million able to find work by March 2020 when the nation faced the unprecedented challenge of the global pandemic.

It's worth reflecting that, when the pandemic struck, Australia had record labour force participation. The unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent in March 2020, and the budget was in balance for the first time in 11 years. The pandemic required an enormous response and many sacrifices. It required a government willing to step up and support Australians through the social and economic turmoil, which it did through the JobKeeper program. The coalition had in place long-term plans for jobs and growth, and, as a result, our recovery from the pandemic has been extremely strong. We entered the crisis from a position of economic strength, and our policies have played an essential role in supporting economic recovery by increasing labour force participation and helping workers transition into new jobs. The coalition worked hard to assist Australians back into work after the pandemic, including targeted support for our most affected regions and our most disadvantaged jobseekers.

Twenty-five regions were able to support employment through our $62.8 million local jobs program. Employment facilitators developed local jobs plans in 25 regions in collaboration with local stakeholders, employers and training organisations. When collaboration happens between government and people in local areas—and I see this all the time in regional areas—you get success. When it's dictated to from the top, from Canberra, sometimes the success is limited.

The Goulburn-Murray Employment Region, which takes in the electorate of Nicholls, was a beneficiary. The Goulburn-Murray local jobs plan sought to address barriers to employment, including adequacy of public transport connections across the region; lack of affordable housing, in part driven by the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on the seasonal workforce; and the shift of workers away from the hospitality and tourism sectors to jobs that were less likely to be impacted by COVID. Brokering opportunities for youth skill development and employment including apprenticeships, traineeship, micro-credentialing, work experience and work placement is part of the plan we put in place. Maximising the extent to which local positions were filled by local jobseekers was part of that plan, and it is helping reinvigorate the local economy and industry post pandemic. Boosting employment and training opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobseekers, in collaboration with local Indigenous organisations—and I emphasise the collaboration—was part of the plan. Identifying pathways for local jobseekers to be upskilled to meet the needs of major projects, including the infrastructure works planned through the region—much of that infrastructure delivered by the coalition government—was also part of that plan. So, too, was supporting jobseekers—in particular people with disabilities, culturally and linguistically diverse cohorts, those of mature age and youth—to align with our local labour needs. Workforce Australia was the biggest reform to employment services since the Howard government's reforms in the nineties, and it continues to serve the nation well. As I said earlier, this bill is a result of that change.

The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, known as the NEIS, had helped almost 200,000 people start their own business since it commenced in 1985, many of whom may otherwise have had to continue to rely on social security or veterans' entitlements payments. Under the scheme, people moved off income support by creating their own job. In turn, many of these businesses have created work for other people. The Self-Employment Assistance program commenced on 1 July 2022 to replace NEIS assistance through Australia. In addition to the assistance available to help participants start and maintain their own viable small business, Self-Employment Assistance and other NEIS participants can receive a fortnightly payment of $642.70, equal to the single, no children, rate of JobSeeker payment for 39 weeks and, if eligible, rent assistance for up to 26 weeks. This bill makes it simpler to align these payments with family, social security and veterans' entitlement laws.

I go back to the theme of opportunity—that thing I talked about in my maiden speech. It's something that's so important to me. It's important to the Nationals. And it's important to the electorate of Nicholls.

One of Australia's most successful business owners, Visy Industries' founder, Richard Pratt, started his life in Australia in Nicholls in 1938. He embraced the opportunity that Australia had offered. Richard Pratt was educated at Grahamvale Primary School and Shepparton high school, before going on to University High School and then a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne in 1953. In 1965, following the death of his father, Leon, Richard took over the cardboard corrugation company which, at the time, had an annual turnover of $5 million. Over the next 40 years, he build Visy into one of the world's largest packaging companies, with revenue of more than $3 billion—amazing success, born in the heart of Nicholls.

I won't be so bold as to predict that a business of such proportion will emerge from this scheme. But I can assure the House that, without opportunity—without the chance to have a go and the government supporting people who have a go—it definitely won't happen.

Many of the people who do take up this scheme will have more modest ambitions, at least initially. They'll want to create for themselves the opportunity to create business and to be financially independent.

Nichols is a great electorate, filled with examples of people who started with very little and forged a path in business. The furphy is not unfamiliar in this place, but you might not be as well acquainted with Australia's oldest continuously-operating family business, which now operates as J Furphy & Sons and Furphy Foundry. From time to time, maybe there are a few furphies told in this place! But let me tell you about the Furphies from Shepparton, after whom that expression, 'the furphy', was named. Both of those divisions—J Furphy & Sons and Furphy Foundry—are owned by fifth-generation descendants of the company founder, John Furphy. Furphy was 22 when he began his blacksmith and wheelwright business, servicing the needs of the small agricultural community of Kyneton and later moving to Shepparton.

John Furphy would invent, produce and market agricultural equipment, including the famous Furphy water cart, which led to the 'furphy' becoming part of our language, because that's where the World War I soldiers gathered to exchange gossip, around the water cooler, which was the Furphy tank. Or Mawson's, another family business that started in 1927 when Barney Mawson decided to invest in a 1.5-tonne, four-cylinder, petrol-powered Chevrolet truck. The truck replaced the wood drays delivering firewood to the Cohuna Butter Factory, and, over the years, the family business grew, carting produce to market, and firewood. After World War II, it expanded into construction, quarrying and roadmaking. Today Mawson's, through its construction and concrete and quarries divisions, is a major employer in Nicholls. It has played a significant role in building the infrastructure that supports our great industries.

Around 35 per cent of all heavy transport vehicles registered in Victoria are registered in the electorate of Nicholls. Many of those businesses have grown from the opportunity provided by agriculture and food processing. Many started with a single truck, often one of the cheap and plentiful army surplus supply vehicles made available after the Second World War. Many were migrant families who settled in the region and started growing fruit before recognising there was also a need to transport it. They have been over many decades early adopters of new technology and clever innovators.

The region continues to foster opportunities, including Cannatrak, which is establishing a state-of-the-art medicinal cannabis supply chain in Shepparton, which will dramatically decrease our reliance on imported products. The pandemic demonstrated the vulnerability of global supply chains and the need to bolster domestic capability, something the coalition government was very quick to recognise and act on. Where would Australia have been in those early months of the pandemic without Med-Con, a small entrepreneurial company based in Shepparton that was the nation's only surgical mask manufacturer at the time? Med-Con began in 1989 with machinery designed and developed locally with government support and was able to ramp up production to produce personal protective equipment for Australia, which we so desperately needed during the pandemic. Med-Con successfully created a niche market before the pandemic based on quality and reliability despite intense competition from cheaper imported masks. As the global demand skyrocketed, it quickly became the only reliable supplier.

As the member for Nicholls, I haven't forgotten—and I will never forget—the critical role Med-Con played in helping us with our mask supplies during the pandemic when we couldn't get supplies from overseas. But, unfortunately, many large customers, including the Victorian government, have again started sourcing from overseas. This is both disappointing and short-sighted. Business can be tough, and we're all familiar with the statistic that 20 per cent of start-ups fail in the first year and 60 per cent within three years, but that's not a reason not to try or a reason not to provide opportunity. That percentage would be better if we could partner with people who are having a crack on their own, look after them, and try to give them every chance to succeed. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Many who initially fail take those learnings and try again and ultimately succeed. Often all it takes is a good idea and determination.

I am really pleased to support this legislation and the opportunity it gives Australians to create secure work for themselves and financial independence by starting their own business.

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