Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McLucas for her contribution—or at least the first half of her contribution—to this debate and I thank the opposition for their support of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Industry Code Penalties) Bill. This government believes a strong economy is essential to the small business sector, as it is to all businesses in Australia, and our reforms, including the repeal of the mining tax, are all about ensuring we have the strongest possible economy to create the competitive conditions that will allow small business and other sectors to survive and thrive. We have gone through the proper processes in bringing this legislation to the chamber. I acknowledge the work of the Wein review that occurred under the previous government.

Contrary to the assertions made by Senator McLucas, the heavy lifting of proper consultation and proper process still had to be done to bring this legislation to the parliament. That is why it has taken 12 months. We have acted as fast as possible to bring this forward because we are committed to making sure that the franchising sector in Australia, as with all small businesses, is as successful as possible. We acknowledge the employment of more than 400,000 Australians in this sector and the annual turnover of $131 million, and we are committed to the introduction of a new franchising code of conduct later this year. As has been discussed, this legislation will provide and strengthen the penalties and provisions the ACCC has to provide for strong deterrent against breaches of such a code. They will add flexibility to the ACCC's toolkit and ensure that when the code comes into being we can have confidence that it will work. Both the bill and the new code are expected to commence on 1 January 2015. These are important reforms that will give confidence to an important sector of our economy. I commend the bill to the house.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.