Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member Robertson for his contribution and references to doorknocking. I think we can never do enough doorknocking, whether we are humble backbenchers in opposition or on the other side or the Treasurer. I suggest that the Treasurer do some doorknocking this summer not just of houses and households in his electorate and other electorates but in particular of small businesses. I think he might learn a lot. I think he might, if he does that, spend this summer doing different tasks than he did last summer.

I remember, in February, reading the Treasurer's essay; it was dated 1 February 2023, so I take it he wrote it over the summer. It was an interesting essay that referred to Greek philosophers and Guernica in Spain; I can only presume he was wishing he was in Greece or travelling through Spain. It also made him become quite a radical. He said things like this: 'It's not just our economic institutions that need renewing or restructuring, but the way our markets allocate and arrange capital as well.' He then criticised the neoliberal model and had all sorts of radical ideas. That was quite an interesting insight into the Treasurer.

Let's judge the Treasurer on his record. At the end of the year, how has that essay played out? There were three records broken this month. The first is, as revealed by the shadow Treasurer, that the OECD revealed Australian households suffered the largest decline in real per capita household disposable income of any advanced economy—down 5.1 per cent. Compare that with Chile—up 5.6 per cent; Spain—up 6 per cent; and the US—up 3.5 per cent. But there were two other records we broke. We saw the lowest rental availability among our peers—0.9 per cent. That number is a percentage of the stock available for rent. Of course there's a rental crisis; it's the one thing the Greens actually get right. There is a crisis in rental and housing accommodation. Compare that to 6.3 per cent in Singapore and Hong Kong. No-one who's been to Singapore and Hong Kong would say they're struggling for supply. They've got a lot less land than we do in this country, but for some reason we can't build the stock and have housing available for people who need it. And No. 3 is that the Economistnot exactly a right-of-centre magazine anymore—ranked Australia No. 1 for entrenched inflation. Those three records don't bode well for this essay.

Can I suggest that a different essay be produced over summer by the Treasurer, that he turns his mind to small business and asks: 'What is it like to start a small business? If I have some capital of my own or some from a bank, how do I start a small business?' Let's turn to some of the obstacles. We've seen in this parliament the 'closing loopholes' bill, which runs to 278 pages and has an explanatory memorandum of 305 pages. How's that helping small business start a business! It's got a definition of 'casual' that runs to three pages. It's got a definition of 'employment' that runs to seven pages. We talk about productivity and competition, but these are productivity and competition killers. That's 278 pages and 305 pages on top of the 1,098 pages of the Fair Work Act. Tell that to a small-business person or an aspiring small-business owner, on how they're supposed to start a business.

Then I take the Treasurer to the Corporations Act; it runs to 3,661 pages. The Income Tax Assessment Act runs at 11 volumes to 4,842 pages. We've got the GST Act at 655 pages—and on and on it goes. You have to ask yourself, and the Treasurer should ask himself: how can aspiring small-business and medium-business owners think this is a good place to start a business? You know what's going to happen? They're going to go to their financial adviser and they're going to say: 'It's too hard. Put your money in property and put your money in an exchange traded fund.' What will that mean for this country, where, right now, 42 per cent of people employed in the private sector are employed in a small business, compared with 34 per cent in a large business? When you add together small and medium businesses who employ people in this country, the economy doesn't work without them.

I implore the Treasurer to do some reading and some doorknocking over the summer, and to write another essay where he puts himself in the shoes of aspirational Australians, aspirational families and aspirational future small-business owners. The generation of this economy relies on him doing a new essay and doing his homework over the summer.

See this speech in context