Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion, and I outline that Australian small and family businesses are simply not aware of the impacts of this bill. Why is that? Well, because this Labor government has not spoken to one small business about its impacts, particularly about industry-wide or patenting bargaining, as it was known during the upheaval of the 1970s and 1980s. It is a throwback for Australian industrial relations laws and it risks our economy to industry-wide strikes and sympathy strikes by other industries.

In question time yesterday the Minister for Small Business was asked to name just one small business that this Labor government has spoken to that supports this bill. She wasn't asked about a peak body or a representative group like COSBOA or the ombudsman, but an actual small business that this minister has consulted with. The minister ducked and weaved, did the dance with her one-minute answer and avoided responding to the question. Coming to her aid was not only the minister for industrial relations—who has now existed the chamber—who tried to answer the question for her, but also the Minister for Social Services, who yelled out across the chamber that certain large supermarket chains have been consulted. It's a joke. I have a news flash for those opposite: large supermarket chains are not small businesses. The Minister for Small Business is supposed to be looking out for small business. She is supposed to be their champion, but of course she can't be their champion, because the Australian Labor Party despises small and family business.

The Labor Party look out for union bosses who put them there, not small businesses who create jobs for Australians and livelihoods for families. They want to break the small and family business model. Those opposite are ramming through this legislation that will break the small business model. This bill is 243 pages long and has been rushed with a chaotic process, such that on 9 November the government moved a further 34 pages of their own—

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