Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge Senator Antic from South Australia's question, but I also acknowledge the former President of the Australian Senate, another great senator from South Australia, former Senator Alan Ferguson, who is joining us here today. The coalition government on this side of the chamber are very proud to back small and family businesses and small and medium enterprises in Australia every step of the way, because we understand that they are the backbone of the Australian economy. There are approximately 3.4 million SMEs in Australia, and the contribution they make to employment and their importance to Australians cannot be underestimated. Every day almost seven million Australians get up and go to work because of the 3.4 million SMEs in Australia. As the Treasurer himself recently said, small and medium-sized businesses are responsible for more than three-quarters of the output in agriculture and more than half the output of construction.

One of the issues that does affect small and family businesses and medium-sized enterprises in Australia is access to necessary capital. They often find it difficult to obtain finance other than on a secured basis, and typically what they need to do is put up the family home. Also, once they have actually pledged all of their real estate as collateral—and, as I said, it is the family home—they find it difficult to access additional funding. Because on this side of the chamber we are committed to putting in place the policies that will allow small and family businesses and medium-sized enterprises to prosper, grow and create more jobs for Australians, we have established the Australian Business Growth Fund. The government is committing $100 million in funding to the fund and is partnering with other financial institutions to provide equity funding to small and medium enterprises. We are looking forward to getting capital flowing to these businesses.