Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Brilliantly timed as always, Kim Houghton from the Regional Australia Institute has just texted me. He didn't know that I was going to be rising to speak on this very important bill, but he's let me know that new figures were released just today. There are 92,500 regional vacancies for October. As he says, that has remained flat over the past 12 months and has been at near-record highs since October 2022. Those are the regional job vacancies. He, like so many others, are concerned that these vacancies just aren't being filled.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Bill 2023 is integral to small-business success. The coalition has put forward a worthy amendment to this particular bill, which I very much support, but I note with great interest that those opposite have all got to their feet, walked to the despatch box and talked about how small businesses are the heartbeat of the economy. Each and every one of them who utters those oft-used words is absolutely correct. It doesn't matter whether they come from a metro or a country electorate, I would like to think that each and every one of the other 150 representatives in the House of Representatives—including me, of course—knows that small business is the heartbeat and the lifeblood of the Australian economy, because it is.

I come here with a bit of skin in the game—a lot of skin in the game, in fact. I was a small-business owner and operator before coming to this place. Our business ran for eight years and continued with my two family colleagues after I entered parliament. It is a very successful printing and publishing firm in Wagga Wagga—MSS Media Services. I worked at a medium-sized business in Wagga Wagga, the Daily Advertiser newspaper, which at its zenith in the late 1990s and early 2000s employed more than 230 people. It was a good business which had a lot of union representatives from different industries—Printing and Kindred Industries Union, the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance, which was previously the Australian Journalist Association, of which I was a member for 21 years. So I come here with a balanced experience, knowing the value of unions, knowing the value of small business and knowing, as so many government members have said, that small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy.

I also want to point out that, while in government, we put in place the Australian Small Businesses and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. I know the job that Kate Carnell did in that role. I know the work that Bruce Billson carried on in that role. I would say to any small-business operator to have a look at that website—asbfeo.gov.au—because it is a very good and valuable source of information for everything from dispute resolution to wages, what is a 'casual', updated industrial relations, and mental health support. That's so important to a small-business owner and operator. The member for Menzies spoke earlier about the absolute burden—I welcome the Assistant Treasurer to this debate—of paperwork that small-business owners and operators do. I know we had various deregulation days where we tried to cut through red tape. While the Assistant Treasurer joins us, I will praise him. I have, publicly, in my electorate, praised him about what he is doing with cyberscams and nefarious characters who prey on our small businesses. I thank him and the member for Greenway, the Minister for Communications, for what they are doing because white-collar crime is such an impost on our small businesses. I think the member for Whitlam and the member for Greenway for building on the work we did in government to eradicate or at least reduce the amount of traffic that small businesses have to endure in this regard—unnecessary criminal activity.

Talking of the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman—ASBFEO—it was established in March 2016. As I say, it is a valuable resource for small business. On its website, ASBFEO indicates that 97.5 per cent of Australian businesses are small businesses. Why wouldn't you want to support those small businesses?

Between 2020 and 2021, more than five million people—more than 42 per cent of the private sector workforce—were employed by small business. In that same financial year, small business contributed a third of Australia's gross domestic product. In 2021-22, there were 2½ million small businesses operating nationally, and the number of small businesses increased by seven per cent.

I am alarmed by the number of small businesses that have closed their doors in the past 12 months. I am alarmed by the amount of red tape that small businesses are having to wade through. I am alarmed by the high costs of energy for those small businesses. Appreciating the fact that Labor is putting in place an incentive for the instant asset write-off, and appreciating the fact that Labor claims that it was the originator of the instant asset write-off, way back—

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