Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

The number of small businesses in Australia was 1.88 million in June 2006, which is an increase from the June 2003 figure of 1.79 million. So what we are seeing is the growth of small business. Why is small business growing? Is it because of all the negative impacts of the Howard government? Can I suggest to those opposite: no, it is because we have gone about creating an environment where small business can prosper. What is more, it is prospering; and, what is more, when small businesses prosper they generate jobs.

On the statistics to which the honourable senator refers, I do not know where she got them from but I am always wary of how the Labor Party gets statistics and seeks to interpret them. In recent times I was provided with a survey of 7,426 employers taken nationally by Hudsons and if I were to pick one figure out I could say that, out of that survey, 5.8 per cent of businesses expect to reduce their workforce. Well, that is a sad thing, isn’t it? But that is only a very infinitesimal amount of the picture. The other part of the picture is that 40 per cent of businesses expect to add to their headcount in April-June 2007. So what you can do is selectively cite certain statistics to try to skew it one way or the other way. What I invite the Australian people to do is simply look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys which show 263,700 of our fellow Australians are now in employment as a result of the policies that we have taken—no thanks to those opposite.