Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to ask a question of the minister. What measures, particularly included in the budget, are there for hardworking small business operators to make their lives easier and to address the cost-of-living challenges as they present through the agrifood supply chain? I think you share my view, Mr Deputy Speaker, that we hear too infrequently in this place from people at the coalface, and so I thought I'd read into Hansard a few emails I've received on this topic so that people can understand what is actually happening to the costs in the food supply chain.

The first email comes from Nigel Rollbusch, of Rollbusch Quality Meats at Barmera and Waikerie. 'Hi Tony. My power bill has increased 50 per cent within 12 months. At our Barmera shop, we have put a 30-kilowatt solar on the roof and we're trying to grow our business into small goods, but, as a high user of electricity, we can't afford this increase. We're trying to be competitive locally and nationally and even looking to export, but we need cheaper power. We currently employ 14 employees and are looking to grow this with four apprentices, two school based and two third-years, with another couple in sight. We're doing our best to support local kids with jobs, but our inputs are ever-increasing and I can't increase our prices without losing customers. If the current government want to reduce unemployment, how about giving higher-using businesses power relief so we don't fall over? Small business can't soak up any more. Small business needs help to grow.'

Then there's Stephen Noble. Stephen is part of a family business. They're private irrigators in the Riverland. He goes on to say: 'We operate a fourth-generation enterprise growing wine grapes, citrus and almonds in the Riverland. We did have an ongoing power supply agreement with Origin which expired on 28 February this year. The lowest off-peak rate is for a three-year term at 17.249c per kilowatt-hour. Tony, that's an increase of 542 per cent—totally unacceptable. For many irrigators, the power increases may be enough to send them "out the back door". The management aspect of timing when to irrigate becomes much more of an issue due to power cost spikes which can literally be eye-watering: up to $15,000 per kilowatt and higher.'

Finally, Josh Clark, a dairy farmer at Mil-Lel, said: 'I'm on a dairy farm just out of Mount Gambier. It's a family owned, third-generation business. Our two-year contract on demand was due for renewal in December last year. We use around 500,000 kilowatt-hours. We received a renewal offer and thought it was a mistake, with a massive increase in two years. Of course, I immediately went shopping around, starting with the big electricity players in South Australia. Both had a freeze on any large new business contracts. I asked why and they told me they couldn't say but suggested it had to do with unpredictable pricing. I was able to get some offers from smaller players in the market who had similar pricing to Momentum, my previous provider. I went back to them reluctantly and simply explained that we have seen significant increases not only in electricity but also in other inputs—diesel and fertiliser have all gone up.'

Finally, there was the much-publicised Nippy's Fruit Juices in my electorate, a third-generation, family-owned business from Barker facing a 92.5 per cent price increase for their energy costs. That's more than $900,000 that will need to ultimately be borne by consumers. That's the point. Each individual I mentioned here—Rollbusch Quality Meats in Barmera and Waikerie, Stephen Noble from Riverland Blocks, Josh Clark, a dairy farmer at Mil-Lel, and Nippy's are involved in producing things that end up on our supermarket shelves. They're heavy users of electricity, and the prices they need to pay are simply unsustainable. There are two options those opposite need to consider: either these small businesses go out of business and we eat food that comes from overseas, or the costs are passed onto consumers, which is why consumers are facing the pain they do as they wheel their trolleys down the supermarket aisle. So my question to those opposite is: what supports are in your budget for hardworking small businesses?

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