Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It taught me a lot about the value of hard work, listening to your father and getting on and saving, because clearly, at that rate, I was not going to get to my target goal purchase—which I think back then was a pair of rollerskates—anytime soon.

Our small businesses out there in regional Australia provide 75 per cent of our employment. So these big-stick approaches do not work in companies where people are working alongside each other to ensure that the small business grows and develops. The employer wants his boss to succeed, wants the business to grow, wants to work hard so that he can not only maintain his job but his boss's business can contribute to the local footy club or the local surf lifesaving club. The employer and the employee have to fight fires together. They have to play footy on, hopefully, the same team because otherwise it could lead to some issues on a Monday morning, depending on what the game was.

Essentially, though, the way small business operates outside of capital cities is with a more collaborative approach. Small to medium enterprises underpin our local economies in the regions. We encourage the Greens and Labor to support our amendments to the bill so that we can make it the best piece of legislation going forward for industrial relations.