Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. How is the Albanese Labor government supporting small businesses? And what have been the challenges to delivery?

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

I want to thank the member for Blair for his question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fairfax will leave the chamber under 94(a).

The member for Fairfax then left the chamber.

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

I know that the member for Blair is a great representative of the local small businesses in his electorate, and we are supporting small businesses because we know that small businesses have been having a difficult few years and they have been having a tough time, which is why our budget has provided targeted support, while not adding to inflation.

We want to help small businesses, and we are, to save on their energy bills through the Small Business Energy Incentive and, indeed, through the targeted energy bill relief that we're delivering in partnership with the states and territories. We're making it easier for small businesses to invest and to grow, with cash-flow support through the $20,000 instant asset write-off. We're ensuring that small businesses can innovate, invest and grow, by providing that cash-flow support. We're also ensuring that small businesses adopt and adapt to digital technology, through the industry growth plan, and we're helping them thrive online through the Digital Solutions program.

We are also helping to protect small businesses from cybersecurity attacks through a new $23 million Cyber Wardens program. This program is a pilot that COSBOA has developed with some private sector partners but with content developed alongside the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

We're reducing the time that small businesses spend doing taxes. We're saving small businesses both time and money with these changes. We're also expanding the Tax Clinic program to support small businesses and individuals, and it was a great opportunity for me to be able to visit this in my home state of Tasmania, to see how it's delivering critical support.

At every opportunity, we have been saying 'yes' to supporting small businesses. We've updated the Commonwealth Procurement Rules to give small businesses a bigger slice of the $70 billion that goes to tender each year. We've said yes to making unfair contract terms illegal, something those opposite talked about for a long time but, in nine years, didn't get round to. We have legislated it. We've supported small businesses in terms of being paid on time; we have a current review into the Payment Times Reporting Act. Importantly, we've also brought together the small-business ministers from around the country—who hadn't been brought together for more than eight years—to make sure that we can work across states and territories to support small businesses.

Whilst we've been saying yes to small businesses, those opposite have been saying no. They said no to the Energy Bill Relief Fund, a direct rebate for small businesses. They came in here and they voted against it. They said no to the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund that will support supply chain resilience for small businesses. They came in here and again voted no. In fact, they did very little when it came to supporting small businesses against cybersecurity attacks, but we have already moved. They failed, as I said, to make unfair contract terms illegal. They have done very little. (Time expired)