John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Exactly! I take your interjection, Senator Birmingham. That is how big businesses got big—they started off small and they grew big; now we are seeing big businesses winding back. We are seeing record liquidations and insolvencies. Why is that? We hear about this booming economy. The biggest issue is the lack of confidence.

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—

As I said, people do not trust this government. They do not trust you with your promises on your carbon tax. They do not trust you to manage money. They do not trust you to run the economy. All you know is borrow, borrow, spend, spend, waste, waste. They do not trust you to build school buildings, they do not trust you to put Pink Batts in buildings. You spent a billion and a half putting Pink Batts in and another billion pulling them out! There's two and half billion of taxpayers' money gone.

And here is the problem that small business is facing: extra costs of doing business. You go out and talk to them. I challenge any one of you: come with me for a stroll through a country town. Stick your head in the door of a small business and say, 'Hello, I'm a Labor senator. I've come to see how business is.' You would want to be wearing a hard-hat, because I know what the small businesses think of you lot. I know exactly what they think of you: they don't trust you, they know you don't care about them and that is why, every time I walk into a small business, they say, 'When is the election? Bring it on as soon as you can; we want to have a say', especially in the seat of New England, where we saw our federal member, Mr Windsor—I live in his seat—have his rant and rave the other day, saying Mr Abbott would bring in a carbon tax. What a joke. Mr Abbott would not bring in a carbon tax. It is a big 'if' anyway—that word 'if'. If the dog didn't stop for a little squat, he'd have caught the fox. That word 'if' means a fair bit. So the situation is this: if you cripple small business, you cripple the wealth-building sector of our nation—and that is exactly what you intend to do, and that is why they don't trust you. (Time expired)