Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

A superb one! Senator Sandy Macdonald was also in farming. They were all small business people. People say, ‘What is the core ethos, a similar tenet, that runs through the whole lot of you?’ It is small business. You have to protect small business because they are so damned busy trying to look after their own businesses that they do not have the ability to have lobbyists walk up and down our corridors. They do not have the money to put on marvellous gala functions so you can swan around all night. All that they rely on is your intent, your goodwill and their belief that you will go in and fight for them. Probably the best support that they can give you is to turn up to a function in Brisbane, Cairns or out at Longreach, and that is about as close as it gets. They rely more than most on the good nature of this chamber to do the right thing by them. Big business has big pockets to fund strong lobbying positions in this building, and that is why we must always be mindful of small business.

As we go forward, I hope that this ‘Birdsville amendment’ is something that people will reflect on and think that there was a change that came about, and that when people go to Birdsville, amongst other things like going to the races, they will say that this is where a new stage—not the complete stage, not the panacea, not the be-all and end-all—of looking after small business started. That would be another part of the intrigue of how these issues are pursued and how they get somewhere.

Finally—and I hear some people denigrating me, which I do not think is needed—I would also like to acknowledge the support and the hard work of Professor Zumbo. I do not feel that he is welded to any political group. I believe that he has a belief in small business. When I read him in the Australian Financial Review I see that he understands legislation and the Trade Practices Act like nobody else I know. That does not mean that I agree with everything that he says—I do not—but I think that he has been a great advocate for small business. I thank the Senate and hope the Senate gives strong support to this bill—I know it will—and to the amendments. I look forward in the future to progressing other issues pertaining to small business.