Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to speak about small business, particularly small business in the Parkes electorate. Over the last few weeks I have been visiting the chambers of commerce and the progress associations in many of the towns in my electorate and meeting with small business owners. I have to say that at the moment they are feeling the pressure. Small business is the canary in the coalmine of the Australian economy, and at the moment small business owners are feeling the squeeze. What they tell me is that there is no confidence. They feel no confidence within the Australian community and therefore a lot of spending has been put on hold, so small business is feeling the effects of the lack of direction of this government. Indeed, there have been five small business ministers in the last 15 months and small business has largely been forgotten by the current Labor government. Small business is also under pressure from imports coming through on internet sales. That is very much so in regional areas where people are turning to online purchases. So that is also having an effect on small business. I have 24 business groups or chambers of commerce in my electorate and within the next couple of weeks I will be visiting all of those and they will be taking some heart from the fact that if there is a change of government small business will be once more at the forefront of the agenda. The shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey, clearly indicated that in is budget in reply speech in the Great Hall last week, a speech that was purely focused on small business.

Changing tack completely, this week is Kidney Health Week and I would encourage everyone this week to think about the health of their kidneys. I have a personal interest in this. Indeed, just over 12 months ago I lost one of my kidneys to cancer. I very much understand that you can have serious issues with the health of your kidneys and have no physical signs of it. Indeed, you can lose 90 per cent of your kidney function before physical signs start to show. One in three Australians will suffer from some form of kidney disease. I encourage everyone this week to think about the health of their kidneys and think about their general health. A lot of things, like obesity, smoking, alcohol and diabetes, can compound to affect the health of your kidneys. With this week being Kidney Health Week, I encourage everyone to have a check-up. (Time expired)