Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues on this side of the House, I am genuinely and personally concerned for the thousands of small businesses that will be affected by Labor's industrial relations laws. We are genuinely concerned. They are our heart and soul. It's absolutely clear to us on the side that the Albanese Labor government will hit those same small businesses hard. They will be dragged into this by the sheer scale and scope of these laws—the impacts on small businesses and those small manufacturers.

I will tell you what concerned me today, and the two members involved are in this House right now. We heard from the minister himself that farmers are the key targets. We heard in a response to a question today in question time that farmers are a key target of the industrial relations laws. If we look at our agricultural sector, whether it is the dairy sector, cattle or feedlots, horticulture and viticultures, who provides the food, the fibre and who feeds 60 million people around the world, as well as what we do here in Australia—25 million here and 60 million in total? We heard today that these producers are the targets for Labor's industrial relations laws.

Many of those same businesses, I recall, are the same ones who started farming at the same time that my husband and I bought our first property on the day we got married. In those days, interest rates went from 17 to 23 per cent and it was tough going. These are the same businesses that Labor is now targeting, so I am very seriously concerned for those businesses, including those who are focused day in and day out on their bottom line. That is what they do and, often, those small-business owners can't afford to take a wage themselves. They pay the people who work for them first, they value those people and they have a really great relationship with those same people. These are often small mum-and-dad business owners working their hearts out. Rural, regional and remote businesses, really diverse, could be swept up in this, no matter where they are in Australia.

A part of what we hear from the other side is that the bill does provide the unions an open door into those small businesses for the first time. So those businesses will be roped into a bargaining process that they don't want to have. They may have terms and conditions forced on them, whether or not they can afford it. That's the harsh reality: whether or not they can afford it. Jennifer Westacott has said that compliance costs for small- and medium-sized businesses are set to explode. So how do you go when you're looking at your bottom line and this is what you're facing?

The Albanese Labor government's own regional impact statement has said that this will cost small businesses $14,600 in bargaining costs, including consultancy fees. Well, they actually don't have their own HR department, so, yes, they are going to have to pay.

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