Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace, and Deregulation. Will the minister update the House on actions the government is taking to make it easier for small and family businesses so that they have the confidence to grow and to employ more hardworking Australians? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My thanks to the member for Brisbane. I note with interest—having got to know him well over the last 12 months—that he is the fourth generation of his family to work in his family's business, retailing and shopkeeping. At the risk of being indulgent, I'm extremely proud that last year my 18-year-old son, Charlie, became the fourth generation of my family to work in my family business. Of course, those opposite have a very different understanding of family business: it's whether or not your brother or sister is in the union with you!

I'm asked: what are we doing for small and family business. At the risk of being very repetitive following the Treasurer and the Prime Minister, I say that, last year, the Leader of the Opposition at his Press Club speech spoke about the year of ideas and the year of jobs. It would be about jobs, jobs and jobs. How did he go in that contest? He didn't quite go as well as Bernard Tomic in I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here. The verdict is in: 403,000 full-time jobs, 75 per cent of those being full time, and company tax rates being decreased down to 27.5 per cent, on their way to 25 per cent.

Why is this important? Why is it important to look after small and family businesses? The chief economist for the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, just pre Christmas, released a study of where employment comes from. Eighty per cent of the jobs created in the last 10 years—two million of 2½ million—came from small, young firms.

What is the alternative? The alternative is a place where modern economics does not exist. I like to call it 'McManusstan'. It's where Sally McManus comes up with Labor Party policy. It's where the Leader of the Opposition, sometime after that, finds his way to it, but not before the member for Gorton, Mr O'Connor, beats him there every time. The risk to small and family businesses in this country is plain and simple: it sits on the opposition benches. There is a clear choice in terms of what businesses are doing. They are investing, as the Treasurer and the Prime Minister have said they would do, back in their businesses. Why? Because that's how they grow. What happens when they grow? They employ more people. The choice for small and family businesses, not just in Brisbane but Australia wide, has never been clearer. I welcome the opportunity, and thank the Prime Minister for giving me the opportunity, to prosecute the case on their behalf.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.