Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is Labour Day in my home state of Western Australia, a day which commemorates the achievements of organised labour to implement the eight-hour working day many the middle of the 19th century. On this day, I want to give a shoutout to the more than three million small- and medium-sized business owners in Australia, who are both workers and bosses and who provide employment to over seven million people across this country. In my patch, there are 26,000 of them employing tens of thousands of people. I won't refute that there are some horrible bosses out there—I know there are—but the overwhelming majority of bosses in small and medium-sized businesses are hardworking. They only dream of eight-hour days. They are decent, fair-minded and good people who are trying to make a good life for themselves, for their families and for wider Australia. We need to encourage and support our small- and medium-sized businesses to remove unnecessary blockages and hurdles so that they can get on with their jobs and in so doing ensure that the people that they employ can get on with theirs.

I congratulate the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Cabinet for the vital work they are doing in deregulation and with the Deregulation Taskforce; for example, the regtech platform, the simplification of business registers and the online platform for employment help. Deregulation is essential for our small- and medium-sized businesses. Our government knows there's more to do in this space, and I'm happy to say is committed to doing it.