Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month I met with Claire in my electorate. Claire is a small business owner, and her pharmacy had been flooded. She said: 'As small business owners, we're involved in our business. Quite often we spend more of our waking hours at work than we do in our homes. And then there's some kind of interruption to your business that strikes home—and hard. You realise that your identity is somehow involved in your work and how you do things, and not being able to do that leaves a great big gap.' She spoke of the importance of support like that provided by the NewAccess program. As part of the 2022-23 budget, the government is investing $15.1 million to extend NewAccess for Small Business Owners and the Small Business Debt Helpline for an additional two calendar years, from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. These programs were due to end therefore at 31 December this year, but we have managed to extend them for a further two.

The NewAccess for Small Business Owners program is run by Beyond Blue and it provides free, accessible, tailored coaching to help small business owners manage the pressures associated with owning a business. They don't have to go to the GP and get a mental health plan; they can get this free, confidential mental health support at any time. Between 18 March 2021 and 7 October 2022, 2,755 small business owners had booked an assessment through the program.

The Small Business Debt Helpline is run by Financial Counselling Australia. It's a national service that offers free, confidential phone-based financial counselling for small business owners. Support is provided across a range of complex issues: avoiding bankruptcy, negotiating payment plans, negotiating debt waivers, making grant applications and negotiating insolvency. It is tailored specifically for small business owners so that they can be provided with and get the support that they need. Between 10 March 2020 and 30 September 2022 over 3½ thousand cases were supported through the Small Business Debt Helpline, but these are programs that the previous government would have ended this year, having little regard for the challenges that small business owners are currently experiencing.

We know that small businesses have been doing it tough coming out of the global pandemic, but they've also been doing it tough in recent weeks and months, with the floods across Australia, and we know that the summer could also be bad, given the weather warnings that we've had. We need to support small businesses, and that's what we're doing. We're providing tailored programs to them as they deal with their own mental health and wellbeing and their financial wellbeing.

It was great to be with Claire earlier this month. I want to thank her and the team at Beyond Blue and the financial counselling services for coming along to the event.