Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation. Fair Work Australia terminated a Work Choices agreement struck by Laundy (Exhibition) Pty Ltd because it left workers worse off in relation to penalty rates, leave and overtime. The minister was a director of the company when this unfair Work Choices agreement was struck. Given the minister's previous support for Work Choices, does he plan on reintroducing any elements of that unfair legislation, or is he content to continue the government's cuts to penalty rates?

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

I thank the honourable member for his new-found interest in small and family business. I would expect that's the first question he's ever asked about one in his entire life. It's nice to be asked a question, given his strong association and history with small and family business. I don't know how many people he's actually employed—put his hand in his pocket and paid—in his time. I imagine the answer is not many, if any.

The premise of his question about the agreement is fundamentally flawed. I thank him for his interest in my father's business. If he has questions that he wants to ask my father, feel free at any time. There are others on the opposition front bench who get on very well with him. He's more closely aligned with your side of politics than he is with mine.

The agreement that was mentioned was let loose at the time because it was finished and terminated, but not for the reasons that he states. It was let loose because the hotel was taken over by Woolworths, and they can't have, because of their size and the cross-border market that they operate in, inconsistent workplace agreements. They like everything to be consistent. That said, in the 23 years that I spent working for my family's business I saw many, many times the impacts that raising wages have on businesses. Last year, 1.1 million small and family businesses made not one dollar in profit, and yet they employed people and paid salaries amounting to $39.5 billion. Yet those opposite want to sully the reputation of those people—

Dr Leigh interjecting—

The member for Fenner is yelling out, 'They dodged their tax.' They didn't make a profit! They put their hands in their own pockets and employed people, day in and day out. That is the truth of what small and family business operators go through in this country.

If the member opposite and the opposition leader, along with Sally McManus in 'McManusstan'—there it is, Tim, 'McManusstan'—increase the minimum wage by 28 per cent, then what will happen to those 1.1 million businesses, that $39.5 billion in wages? If you take it at the average wage, then around 570,000 employees would most likely immediately lose their jobs. These are the nut job policies of those opposite. The agenda has been hijacked by the union movement. The Leader of the Opposition and my opponent have lurched so far to the left and have made that many left-hand turns that they have completed a circle. The truth is that the small and family business operators in this country deserve respect, and they have it on this side of the parliament.