Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say, after that speaker, what a load of rubbish his speech was—absolute rubbish. We are concerned about small businesses. We are concerned that small businesses have had a tough time coming out of the global pandemic and dealing with natural disasters. We are concerned that they're having to deal with rising energy costs. We are concerned that they are dealing with inflation and supply chain issues, as well as the staff shortages that I talked about earlier. We are concerned, and that is why we're supporting them. That is why we are making sure that small businesses are getting the support they need—because we know that, when small businesses are doing well, the Australian economy is doing well and the Australian people are doing well. We've taken action to deliver support for small businesses to become more resilient and more competitive, and we're doing it in many ways and we're delivering on many of our election commitments as we do so. We've updated the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, which will mean small businesses get a bigger slice of the $70 billion in contracts—

Ms Bell interjecting—

See this speech in context