Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

The crossbenchers here are not plugging as a group for the union movement; nor are we anti union movement. So, you're getting from the crossbenchers a more objective point of view on the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. And it's interesting that I think four of us are moving to exclude small business. Seriously, there's a problem if the vast bulk of the people who are non-committed on these broader issues are taking a position that small business needs to be excluded. I explained to the government: the Liberal Party introduced the GST, and that was just dreadful for small business. I'm not making an attack on the ALP as opposed to the others here on small business, because both are guilty. But let me just give this example. Tim Fischer, former leader of the National Party, went to Julia Creek and said, 'The GST will be good for you all,' and they started screaming: 'It's just more for work small business! We just can't handle any more work!' The lady who owned the hardware store burst out crying, and she's a tough lady. I went around and saw her the next morning. She said: 'The tradies come in. They work till six o'clock at night, so they're coming in and out of our hardware store till six o'clock at night.' She said: 'I race home to get the meals for everyone, and then I do the books for the business. My husband's a builder, so I do his books and the hardware store books, and I'm up till well after midnight. The tradies want to get on the job at six o'clock the next morning, so I have to get up at half past five.' And she said, at the thought of doing another hour or two hours of work: 'I just burst out crying. I just couldn't stop.'

I mean, you don't understand that. You people on that side of the House simply do not understand that. The introduction of that GST did exactly what they are accusing you people of doing here—exactly the same thing. But there really isn't a feeling for small business. Woolworths and Coles are allowed to go into newsagencies, they're allowed to go into butcher shops, they're allowed to go into every single area of the economy and wipe out small business right across the board—15 inquiries into them, all a joke; you just rubber-stamp them. So, we don't want any more hypocrisy. But I strongly support not only my colleague here but all the other colleagues on the crossbench, who are all moving exactly the same sorts of resolutions. Please excuse us all for repetitiveness, but we're not a party, so each one of us does our own thing. But each one of us has come to the conclusion that small business has got to be excluded, and it's not excluded here in this legislation.

See this speech in context