Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House what impact small business has had on employment in Australia? Is the minister aware of any proposals which could jeopardise this contribution?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question and note that in 1996, when the Labor Party was last in government, unemployment in Blair was 9.4 per cent; today it is 5.2 per cent, and that is a great story. There are 1.9 million small businesses in Australia. The number has grown by 700,00 since 2001 and, encouragingly, the number of small businesses employing people has increased by 31 per cent in the last three years.

We all know that the Labor Party’s job-destroying unfair dismissal laws were a major impediment to small business employing more people, so this morning I picked up the Australian and had a look at this article: ‘Labor won’t turn back IR clock.’ I thought to myself: ‘Wow! This is significant.’ I looked at a key quote from the member for Rankin and it said:

It is small businesses, not political parties, that make the hiring decisions.

I thought: ‘That’s reasonable. Hooray!’ The Labor Party gave me a bit of a hard time in this place when I said that business creates jobs, not government. So finally they are starting to see the light. In the article, the member for Rankin said:

... small business owners could not afford the time or expense of being dragged off to tribunals by ‘ambulance-chasing agents representing frivolous or vexatious claims of unfair dismissal’.

He went on to say:

Such claims were often designed to extract ‘go-away money.’

I said: ‘That’s exactly what we believed.’ We have been saying that for 10 years and, on the 44 occasions that the Labor Party voted in favour of the unfair dismissal laws and against small business, they never said this. I started to choke on my wheaties at this stage.

Opposition Member:

Opposition member interjecting—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I tell you what: I wasn’t choking on a glass of contact lenses—the member for Rankin has gone red. The member for Rankin went on to say that the unfair dismissal laws were a lawyers’ picnic—he would know something about that. So I thought: ‘Amen. The Labor Party at long last have seen that their job-destroying unfair dismissal laws are bad for small business,’ but then I picked up the transcript of ABC Radio in Brisbane—Madonna King; it is classic reading. Madonna King to the member for Rankin:

You’re telling Labor Party frontbenchers that they should exempt unfair dismissal laws but you don’t have an answer on that yet. Is that what you’re saying?

The member for Rankin:

No, I have not said that in the speech. I have not said—

Madonna King: No, I don’t care what you said in the speech. What is the situation?

The ABC is asking legitimate questions. The transcript continues:

Emerson: I’m saying to you right now in answering your question that I have not said either in the speech or on your program that we are exempting small business.

Madonna King: I don’t understand why you didn’t say this when I spoke to you a couple of hours ago about doing this interview.

Hang on—saying one thing off air and another thing on air? Hello! It is compelling reading. It is quite an engaging conversation. If you need contact lenses, get a microscope and have a look at this. It continues:

Madonna King: You’re being a little bit tricky here, with respect, Dr Emerson, because I read you those parts of the report and at no point did you say that any of it was inaccurate. What have you changed in the last two hours?

At any rate, it finishes with Madonna King saying:

I think it might be better if we have a chat when you’ve made a decision on how to deal with small business.

Amen to that! That is our position. We believe that business creates jobs, not government. We believe that the unfair dismissal laws have been an impediment to job creation by small business. We believe small business is the engine room of the Australian economy, and we believe that the best thing we can do for Australian small business and for job creation is to get out of the way, keep the unions out of the way and help to grow an Australian workplace.