Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak today about small businesses and to put on the record how very well received the small business reforms that the government announced in the recent budget have been, particularly in my electorate of McPherson on the southern Gold Coast.

I took the opportunity in the week after the budget to visit many of my local small business owners, and I would particularly like to mention Selena and Linda from Golosi Food Emporium, Tom from Threeworlds at Burleigh, Bruce and his team at the Byron Bay Candle Company, Michelle at Home Sweet Home, the lovely Linda at Burleigh Baker, and Vanessa from Country K9's Grooming.

Each of those small businesses—and they are just a few of the businesses that I have spoken to recently—were buoyed by the fact that small business is at the heart of this budget. They are optimistic that our package will boost consumer confidence and help create a better local economic environment. At the end of Labor's term the small business share of the private sector workforce fell from 52 per cent to 43 per cent of all employees. The coalition government knew that when we came to office we needed to turn that around, and we have been working very hard to do so.

It is very true that small business is our economic powerhouse. Ninety-six per cent of all of Australia's businesses are small businesses, employing over 4.5 million people and producing over $330 billion of our nation's total economic output. The Gold Coast has a reputation as the small business capital of Australia, and in my electorate of McPherson we have around 15,000 small businesses—a significant number. On the Gold Coast we are a fast-growing and enterprising region, which is why the 'have a go' budget has been so well received locally.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the very active chambers of commerce and other business advocate groups that collectively campaign and provide a voice for small businesses on the coast. The Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce, headed by Peter Yared; the Creek to Creek Chamber of Commerce with president Hilary Jacobs; the Mudgeeraba Chamber of Commerce with John Forrester as president; and the Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce, headed by Gail O'Neill. We also have some very committed local advocacy groups including Connecting Southern Gold Coast, headed by CEO Peter Doggett; The Business League, headed by Ed and Bec Plant; and the newly formed Robina Business Alliance, chaired by Nic Rone.

We announced when we came to office that Australia is once again open for business and we set out to create the right settings for businesses to grow and thrive. Small business on the Gold Coast will continue to benefit from the $5.5 billion Growing Jobs and Small Business package, which is the biggest small business package in our nation's history. I am proud to be part of a government that is supporting small business to have a go and create the right settings for businesses to grow and thrive.