Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I listen to this debate as a small business owner, as someone who, for 25 years, ran my own business. What's more, I'm one of those people who grew up in small business, in a mum-and-dad small business that those opposite so often like to talk about. But what they are saying and what they are doing is simply raising fear amongst businesses, which is the last thing those businesses deserve right now. We know that they are coping with increased costs, like everybody is. They know their workers are coping with increased costs of living. We all recognise it. It's no time to sit there and say, 'Let's do nothing.' That's what those opposite did for nearly a decade. They said: 'Let's just not do anything. Let's just kind of see what happens. Let's just make sure that big businesses continue to roll in big profits by not paying their workers what is so justly deserved. Let's just kind of ignore small business and keep telling them that we're their friends.' Small business, quite frankly, is so busy, they don't have time really to listen to anyone saying anything. What they do is they live their businesses. I think it's really underhand of those opposite. They should be ashamed of their fear-mongering. I recognise they are scrabbling for relevance, but, please, do not use small business to try to score some sort of political point.

We know, on this side, that businesses have dealt with a lot for nearly the last decade. In my electorate, they've dealt with fire, the biggest fire from a single ignition point that the world has ever seen. Businesses suffered, not because they caught on fire, not because they burnt, but because smoke kept the customers away. We then faced floods. Flood after flood after flood. Some people call it six floods, but, in essence, we've had three natural disasters declared for our flooding. So, in 2½ years, that's four natural disasters.

You can bet that small businesses are not saying, 'Hey, these are the best days of our lives!' I'm someone who grew up in business, someone who ran a business for 25 years. I admit I didn't get close to the threshold that those opposite often want to ascribe to small business, which is $50 million turnover a year. I didn't quite get to that! I got to a few million dollars turnover a year, but I didn't make it to 50! I employed women who then went on to set up their own businesses, and I supported them and helped them to build their own businesses. There are incredible small businesses out there now who have been able, once I moved out of it, to take over where I left off. These are the people that those opposite are scarring. It is completely unnecessary.

We've heard today that one of the biggest letdowns for small business was the decision that those opposite made on NBN to turn it from something that was going to provide universal access to fibre for nearly everyone and nearly every small business into this hodgepodge. Personally, for my business, that totally took away the possibility of growing the way I had hoped to from my base in the Blue Mountains. I've had offices in the Sydney CBD in King Street and in the Sydney CBD sector for many, many, many years, but I thought, 'Okay, this is going to allow my business to have the power of being in the city, but with the ability to work from a peri-urban area.' Quite frankly, had I still been in business, those opposite would have taken away that opportunity from me, because of their appalling rollout of NBN.

Those opposite talk about us on this side, with some sort of thinking that we don't speak to small businesses, and we have never been small businesses. You are completely uninformed. Mr Deputy Speaker, their understanding of those of us who represent our communities here is completely uninformed.

We know that COSBOA has said the system is too complex. The major problem we have in IR is complexity. What we want to do is give small business access to the things that big business already has access to. We want to make their lives easier. We want to give them the power to determine their future.

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