Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. Will the minister outline the impact of the carbon tax on small business? What is the government doing to ensure prices for electricity and gas fall, particularly in my home state of South Australia?

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is pretty easy to describe the impact of the carbon tax on small business—horrendous! At a time when there is a challenging marketplace, and small business and enterprising people want to create more jobs, to secure more opportunities, they are laden down and held back by a needless tax which is not effective but acts as a disincentive for employment, which impacts on the cost structure of those businesses, which puts our businesses at a disadvantage when they are competing with international businesses that want the markets that we should be able to make our own, to secure job and economic opportunities for us. I was pleased that the member for Barker hosted me at a meeting with small business people in Mt Gambier. The information that came through there was just how tough things were in the local government area of Murray Bridge. The unemployment rate when the previous Labor government was elected was seven per cent. The most recent figure is 9½ per cent.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under your watch!

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are pretty keen, aren't they? Those figures were from June 2012.

Opposition members interjecting—

That is always the problem, is it not? I always say to members opposite: don't peak early! The facts matter. We have seen an erosion of employment and an undermining of small business enterprise.

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Adelaide will desist.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At that forum and at so many others, dairy farmers like the one the member for Colac and I joined in Colac said, 'What is it about this Labor Party? Do they not realise that needless cost impacts on small business impact on jobs and viability or do they simply not care?

Mr Champion interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Wakefield. You have already been warned. Next time it's out.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It could well be either. It could simply be that Labor does not understand that small business cannot keep getting more and more taxes and more and more burdens.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

I hear the member for Isaacs, a tourist in our region, singing out about us being the government. This government went to the electorate, including to your community where you will not even turn up at your manufacturers because they know how disinterested you are, and we said, 'Let's abolish the carbon tax.' Our plan—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Do members on that side get asked to speak through the chair as well?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will address this remarks through the chair.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pressures on small business are real. Small business people say to me, 'Is it that Labor just don't care or do they not understand it?' They have been warned time and time again that the carbon tax would be an impediment to job creation and prosperity in small business. We have seen 412,000 jobs lost under Labor. We have a chance to end an anti-jobs, anti-small business, anti-growth tax. Those small business people are saying to me, 'Why won't Labor join with the Abbott government in trying to relieve that pressure to reactivate small business, the engine room of the economy?' We say to them, 'We don't know why that is'—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On a day when 5,000 Qantas workers have lost their jobs, him talking about jobs has to be out of order according to irony and the provisions that are in the standing orders.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The minister has the call.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So the impact of the carbon tax on small business is all bad. It is anti-jobs, it is anti-enterprise, it is anti-growth and it is anti-opportunity. Let me ask the question that is asked of me, 'Why is Labor standing in the way of repealing this tax?' Join jobs; join enterprise; axe the carbon tax.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Isaacs will desist!