Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In continuance of the goodwill and good spirit that we have just seen in the House and the common sense and consensus, I will continue in that vein. Labor is very happy to support the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015 and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015.

Labor will support the bills to establish this new role. Briefly, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015 deals with the establishment of an Australian small business and family enterprises ombudsman, its functions and powers and the relationship between Commonwealth and state laws.

The second bill, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015, deals principally with issues of overlap between the existing statutory office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and any other transfer of information from the Ombudsman's office to the new ombudsman.

Additionally, the bills deal with matters relevant to the work of and information currently held by the Australian Small Business Commissioner and the transfer arrangements to the new ombudsman. The bill describes the role of the new ombudsman as having an advocacy function and an assistance function. Under the assistance function, the ombudsman may respond to a request for assistance by an operator of a small business or family enterprise. The ombudsman must transfer a request for assistance to another Commonwealth, state or territory agency if the agency could deal with the request and if it would be more effective and convenient for the agency to do so. And where the assistance requested relates to a dispute with another entity, the Ombudsman may recommend that an alternative dispute resolution process be undertaken.

The Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman is a statutory appointment with statutory powers supported by legislation. Many of its advocacy functions are not dissimilar to the current functions undertaken by the Small Business Commissioner, a role that was established by the previous Labor government. Labor believes the two key principles for defining an Ombudsman are independence and impartiality. Based on these important principles, I wish to place it on record that Labor has some concerns that there are sections in the bill that go to the oversight and advocacy roles of the Ombudsman.

One example can be found in sections 67(2)(b) and 67(2)(c) of the bill, which refer to the circumstances in which the Ombudsman is authorised to deal with a request for assistance. The bill suggests that the Ombudsman has no authorisation to deal with matters that relate to a minister of the Commonwealth, state or territory or the action of an agency of a state or territory. And section 69(1) of the bill, which refers to the circumstances in which the Ombudsman must transfer a request for assistance to another agency, implies that, if the Ombudsman believes another government department can deal with an issue, he or she must refuse assistance. I would have thought requests to the Ombudsman for assistance stemming from actions between a small business and a government agency may be quite common—and that is the very basis for having a statutory independent person to assist with such requests.

Labor considers that the Small Business Ombudsman should be a truly independent and impartial advocate for small business, and any limits placed on requests for assistance by a small business should be at an absolute minimum. Section 69 of the bill will enable the Ombudsman to refer a matter if he or she reasonably believes the request for assistance could have been made to another agency of the Commonwealth, state or territory. The last thing a small business would want when it has sought assistance from the Ombudsman on a matter between the small business and another Commonwealth agency is for the matter to be simply referred on to another government agency and not dealt with effectively or resolved. There is a view that this could compromise the independence and impartiality of the office of the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman as a true advocate for small business. Labor would seek clarification on this from the minister.

Prior to the last election the then shadow minister for small business, who is now the Minister for Small Business, referred specifically to overhauling the role of the Small Business Commissioner as being high on his agenda and said he wanted the role to have legislative powers to resolve disputes, including to make binding decisions and to mediate disputes between business owners and the Commonwealth. Labor is concerned that sections of this bill are inconsistent with what the minister said before the election. There are some other matters of concern in the bill—notably, section 30, which deals with termination of appointment, does not include a statutory immunity clause. Labor has also noted that the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman would be given powers to hold hearings upon referral by the minister. So there are a number of issues Labor is noting for the record. However, I wish to emphasise that we do support the bill. But, as always, Labor will watch closely the effectiveness of the new Ombudsman and we will continue to look at improvements that would strengthen and empower that office to support small businesses. It is important that the most effective oversight and advocacy services provided by the new Ombudsman role for small business are not limited or constrained by legislation where a matter in dispute may be between a small business and another Commonwealth agency.

Labor's record of support for small business speaks for itself. Let me remind the parliament and the public that it was a Labor government that gave small business an advocate in the Commonwealth government by appointing the very first Commonwealth Small Business Commissioner. It was a Labor government that appointed the first federal government small business minister, Barry Jones, in July 1987—and it was John Howard who removed the position from the cabinet in 2001. It was a Labor government, led by Julia Gillard, that restored this position to the cabinet in 2012. When Labor sought to lower the corporate tax rate for small business, in 2010, it was rejected by the Liberals in cahoots with the Greens. It was Labor who introduced significant preferential taxation assistance measures for small business—including tax loss carry-back, instant asset write-off, special depreciation for motor vehicles and the R&D tax incentive—cumulatively worth in excess of $7 billion of direct assistance to the sector. And, once again, it was a Liberal government that showed how little it understood the cash flow needs of small business by cutting these important tax assistance measures.

Labor established the Small Business Support Line and the business.gov.au website as a one-stop shop for information for small business people in a simple and accessible way. Labor also established the Small Business Advisory Services Program delivered through business enterprise centres and chambers of commerce. Labor established the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House allowing employers, including small businesses, to have one simplified location for processing employees' superannuation. Labor established the National Business Names Registry saving money and reducing red tape for small business—quite significant in terms of the direct saving for small business. It was the former federal Labor government that established the first Australian Small Business Commissioner to advocate for, and represent the interests of, small business directly to government.

On 2 January 2013, Mark Brennan, the new Small Business Commissioner, commenced his role as a high-level advocate in government representing the interests of small business and identifying opportunities to further reduce red tape. The commissioner worked in consultation with key small business stakeholders—including industry organisations, small business operators, state small business commissioners and other government agencies—to ensure that small business concerns were heard and taken into consideration across government. That work was so good the reforms continue today. Labor provided funding of $8.3 million over four years to establish the Australian Small Business Commissioner. The commissioner was not a statutory appointment and had no formal investigative or regulatory enforcement powers under any legislation. The commissioner's role is to raise awareness of existing effective services available at the Australian government and state and territory levels to assist businesses in resolving disputes. If one were to listen to the current small business minister when he talks about this new role being a 'concierge' service, one would look very closely at the similarities between the two roles.

Labor also appointed the Australian Small Business Commissioner as a result of feedback from two pieces of work conducted by the department. In 2010 the department commissioned a survey of over 2,000 small businesses across Australia to get more information on the incidence rate of small business disputes. Then, in March 2011, the former Minister for Small Business, Senator Nick Sherry, asked the department to develop an options paper to examine ways to assist small business to deal with business-to-business disputes, which was followed by the release of an options paper for public comment. Labor then called for expressions of interest for the commissioner position in June 2012, with the appointment being announced on 17 October 2012, followed by a merit based selection process run by the department. It is perhaps proper to place on the record also that the Small Business Commissioner, Mark Brennan, is doing an outstanding job advocating for small business and has done so since he commenced in the role in 2013.

As with the small business appropriation bills, Labor will support the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015. However, our concerns remain at some of the measures in the bill, and Labor is ready to work with the government to ensure that small business has access to the very best advocate from a truly independent and impartial service.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise in this place to speak on another one of our bills in support of small business and enterprise, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015. The government is funding $8 million over four years for the creation and ongoing operations of the ombudsman, who will advocate for the Australian small business community.

As we have seen in much discussion over the past few weeks, small businesses and family enterprises play an integral role in the Australian economy, to the extent that they represent around 97 per cent of all Australian businesses, and it is these small business people who face many daily challenges as they seek to expand their business, and they put their whole life on the line. Family enterprises, too, share these challenges, and face many issues because of the nature and characteristics of family business. That is why small businesses and family enterprises need a strong advocate to represent their interests—an advocate who can represent a range of issues, from red tape to taxation—and to be treated as though they were big business with all the resources possessed by Australia's larger companies.

This bill seeks to address the relationship between Commonwealth laws and state laws, and establishes an ombudsman and specifies the functions and powers of the ombudsman. The ombudsman has both advocacy and assistance functions.

This bill will provide significant support to Australia's small business and family enterprise community, with an ombudsman that will undertake research and inquiries into legislation, policies and practices on their behalf. The value, we hope, will be that Australia's small business people will no longer feel left out of the loop, with an ombudsman who will work collaboratively with industry bodies and other groups to advocate and bring a voice to the federal government. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman represents a positive opportunity to establish a highly regarded advocate who will act as a conduit for issues that small businesses and family enterprises face. It is envisaged that the ombudsman will provide valuable leadership and promote a nationally consistent and coordinated approach to the issues small businesses and family enterprises face, by collaborating with state small business commissioners, other state and territory officials and peak industry bodies. The ombudsman will raise the concerns of small business and family enterprise in discussions and interactions across both the public and private sectors.

The Australian government is committed to a general deregulation agenda. A 2012 university study found that small businesses in Australia were spending around $28,000 and nearly 500 hours per year on red tape and compliance burdens. In establishing an Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, we seek to reduce the regulatory burden at a Commonwealth level by undertaking activities including: reducing administrative burdens—for example, suggesting simplifications to administrative forms and processes; minimising the costs businesses incur in complying with regulations; providing advice on matters affecting the interactions of small businesses and family enterprises with Commonwealth agencies; conducting investigations into industry sectors in which small businesses and family enterprises face particular problems; and making recommendations on practical solutions to reduce burdensome regulation. In establishing the ombudsman we hope that it will, in effect, lead to a net reduction in the regulatory burdens faced by businesses, with broader net economic benefits to businesses estimated to be in the order of $18 million per year. But broader net economic costs associated with the ombudsman's assistance function include staff time and out-of-pocket expenses relating to participating in an ADR process. Economic savings relate to avoided court costs, where a dispute is resolved through the ombudsman's assistance function rather than through a court.

With more than 11,000 small businesses in the Forde electorate, the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman will go a long way to assisting these businesses deal with the issues they face on a day-to-day basis and allow the hardworking men and women who run small and family businesses to focus on what they do best: and that is, to build and grow their businesses and employ fellow Australians.

The ombudsman will cut costs significantly for business people across Australia. This bill reduces regulations and administrative burdens. The ombudsman will offer advice and recommendations, and provide a better service and collaborative effort on solving industry problems. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill will improve support and reduce expenses for Australian small businesses, and I commend this bill to the House.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015 and the related bill are yet another fine example of the coalition government's steadfast commitment to small businesses across Australia. It is fitting that in this week, the week in which the government's historic small business tax relief package passed the other chamber, that we are here once again talking about common sense legislation that will make a real and significant difference to the small business sector in this country.

The coalition understands that small business owners face particular challenges in growing their businesses, employing more staff and remaining profitable. As a former business owner myself, I have spoken before in this place about the daily challenges faced by small business owners. Margins can be tight, markets can be crowded and competitive—and larger players do not always play fair. Building a business can take time away from time spent with family and friends. Cash flows and credit lines are a constant source of concern.

In such a challenging environment friends are important, and by now it should be abundantly clear that the coalition is the true friend of small business. Those opposite make shallow attempts to talk themselves up as pro small business. Labor talks a good game, as always, but let us take a look at the facts.

It is the coalition government that has delivered the lowest corporate taxes for small business in almost 50 years. It is the coalition government that has delivered the policy of instant 100 per cent depreciation on each and every small business capital purchase up to $20,000 in value. And it is the coalition government that has announced reforms to generate the more than $2.45 billion in annual red tape compliance cost savings. And now, again, it is a coalition government that, with this bill, will fulfil an election commitment to establish an Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman to provide adequate advocacy and assistance to the small business sector.

The contrast with Labor's record could not be clearer. Labor's small business policy is shambolic. Labor did nothing about reducing corporate tax for six years, while burdening Australians with 21,000 additional regulations. Despite their poor record in government, a week before the 2015 budget the member for Oxley, as Labor's shadow business spokesman, had the hypocrisy to criticise the government's plans to cut tax for small business and to create a tiered corporate tax system. Then, in his budget reply, the Leader of the Opposition ignored his spokesman and offered up some vague motherhood statements about small business-specific tax cuts. The problem is that they are completely unfunded, and the small business sector can have little confidence that Labor has the means, or indeed the intention, of ever delivering.

Let us look at Labor's position on the instant 100 per cent depreciation write-offs up to $20,000. Labor has attempted to pretend that this was in fact their idea. Indeed, it is the case that under Labor there was a less-generous instant asset write-off of up to $6,500. But what Labor is keen for everyone to forget is that the reason that write-off existed was to compensate small businesses for the effect of Labor's business-destroying carbon tax and mining tax.

Of course, the unedifying farce that is Labor's policy on small business has continued in parliament. Having just last month opposed tiered small business tax cuts, the opposition then thought these measures were so important that they had to pass this House immediately—without debate. They did not even want the members of this House to have the opportunity to speak in this place about the many small business owners in their electorates who will benefit from these changes. When it comes to small business, Labor just does not want to hear the good news.

But the good news just keeps on coming with a coalition government. As I said earlier, this bill establishes an Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. Small business owners know they have friends in the coalition government; this bill will ensure that they have a friend in the bureaucracy as well. The ombudsman will have two main functions: an advocacy function and an assistance function.

In terms of advocacy, the ombudsman will continue the work of the Australian Small Business Commissioner. That position was created but never properly legislated by the former government, and the work begun by Mr Mark Brennan in the role will continue under the new ombudsman. The assistance function will establish an alternative dispute resolution mechanism that will provide improved access to justice for small businesses at the Commonwealth level.

I say 'Commonwealth level' quite deliberately, because the intention here is not to duplicate the resources of other officials at a state level. Small business is generally well served by a range of state and territory small business commissioners and other officials. The ombudsman will merely play a complementary role, working with existing state and Commonwealth agencies to fill the gaps in the system and, where possible, referring people to existing resources so as to avoid the 'forum shopping' of grievances. The ombudsman will provide an outsourced alternative dispute resolution service that will incentivize parties to participate genuinely in the process. It is hoped that this service will help improve business productivity, preserve business relationships and avoid litigation.

The Minister for Small Business is to be commended for introducing this bill and the other small business-friendly bills associated with the 2015 budget. At last, after the procession of ministers occupying the role under Labor, the small business sector has a true champion and a voice at the cabinet table. The Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman is just one of a range of measures that the coalition government has implemented to assist small businesses to do what they do best—to invest, to employ and to grow.

I have spent considerable time engaging with many of the 13,000 registered small business owners in my electorate of Ryan since the budget announcement. They are telling me that at last they feel like they have a government that listens, a government that understands and a government that acts in the best interests of small businesses and their employees. I commend the work of the minister and his office, and I commend this bill to the House.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the previous speaker, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Minister for Small Business, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister in relation to their commitment to small business—and we have seen that very graphically displayed throughout this budget. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015 addresses the relationship between Commonwealth and state small business laws. Small business and family enterprises, as we know, play a very significant role in the Australian economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics—which defines a small business as being one with fewer than 20 employees—has indicated that small businesses represent approximately 97 per cent of all Australian businesses and employ around 4.6 million Australians. Many small businesses are also family enterprises and they represent approximately 70 per cent of all Australian businesses. Of the over two million actively trading businesses in Australia, almost 96 per cent of them are small businesses and 3.8 per cent are medium-sized businesses.

Small businesses alone—those with fewer than 20 employees—account for 46 per cent of all of Australia's workers in the private sector. That is the reason I commend the work of the small business minister. That is why we in the coalition understand how important small business is and it is why we have placed such a strong focus on the needs of small business. Of course, small businesses know very graphically that they have never had a better friend in Canberra than the coalition. When I look around Western Australia, I see that 97 per cent of all privately-owned businesses in WA are small businesses and that they account for around one-half of private sector industry employment. There are 210,000 small businesses in Western Australia making up 43 per cent of all goods exported. Of course, the number of small businesses offering flexible hours has increased and there are a number of other real benefits through working for a small business.

In my own electorate there are 12,716 small businesses, and there are over 14,000 in the broader south-west. I looked at the breakdown of those businesses and there are: 3,550-plus in business services, 2,766 in construction, 1,990 in agriculture, 1,669 in distribution services, 1,236 in personal services, 682 in social services, 550 in manufacturing, 49 in mining and 31 in utilities. When you consider the services sector, the Treasurer talks about the fact that the services sector makes up 70 per cent of our economy but only 17 per cent of our exports. There is a great opportunity for many businesses in the south-west in relation to export and in relation to our free trade agreements. This is certainly facilitated by the decisions that we have made throughout this budget.

Even with this particular piece of legislation, we know that small businesses—those small and family enterprises—absolutely need a strong advocate who can represent their interests. A strong advocate can help small businesses and family enterprises by advocating on, for example, red tape, taxation and other issues and problems that they may face. A good regulatory regime can make a considerable difference to the productivity of businesses and decisions about when, or whether, a business should proceed with an investment—a critical decision that every small business makes because they invest their own money, they often mortgage their homes and they take huge risks.

The activities which the small business ombudsman may undertake to reduce the regulatory burden at the Commonwealth level include reducing administrative burdens—perhaps by suggesting simplifications to administrative forms and processes—by minimising the costs businesses incur in complying with regulations. We hear constantly from small businesses about the burden of red tape. It is the bane of their lives. They are so busy working in their businesses; the last thing they need is layer upon layer of red tape. When you see that we have taken $2 billion worth of regulation and cost out of the business sector, you know that we are certainly focused on business across the board and small business in particular.

The small business ombudsman could provide advice on matters affecting the interactions of small businesses and family enterprises with Commonwealth agencies. For those of us who are members of parliament, we understand that some of those people often knock on our doors. Another role for the ombudsman is to conduct investigations into industry sectors, in which small businesses and family enterprises face particular problems—and there are some particular problems. The ombudsman could make recommendations on practical solutions. What we want to hear from the ombudsman is practical solutions to reduce burdensome regulation.

The ombudsman presents a positive opportunity to establish a highly regarded advocate—someone whom small businesses can trust, perhaps like they trust this government, particularly after this budget. The ombudsman will act as a conduit for issues that small businesses and family enterprises face at the Commonwealth level and will promote a nationally consistent and coordinated approach to these issues. The ombudsman will also play a valuable leadership role in collaborating with the state small business commissioners, as well as coordinating with other state and territory officials in the small business space and with peak industry bodies. The ombudsman will raise the concerns of small businesses and family enterprises in interactions across both the public and private sectors. In this expanded role, as a Commonwealth-wide advocate for small businesses and family enterprises, the ombudsman will have information-gathering powers and this will be particularly important. The ombudsman will have the power to conduct hearings, to investigate matters and to make recommendations to the government. They are particularly important powers of the—Time expired.