Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It would be very surprising, if you were the strongest supporter of franchisees and small business, Senator Brockman, if you didn't support this bill here today. The Franchising Laws Amendment (Fairness in Franchising) Bill 2020, and the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, which are reflected in this bill, has the support of the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, COSBOA, the Australian Automotive Dealer Association and the Australian Association of Franchisees. There's pretty comprehensive across-the-board representation there.

Mr Peter Strong—who many in this place know very well and, I would dare to say, are very fond of—the CEO of COSBOA, made the argument that, when a franchisor exploits their small-business franchisees, they're not just exploiting a business; they're ruining the lives of the people who own the business, and their families too. These people might lose their house and everything they have, and often go through extreme emotional stress and turmoil. They don't have the resources to go to court, which is why making inexpensive arbitration available through the ombudsman is so important.

Having participated on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services myself, that committee and those Senate hearings, in a sense, became part of the work to get some justice for these franchisees, because they didn't have the resources to go to court. The parliament, this place, ended up stepping in, calling witnesses. If I remember rightly—and Senator O'Neill, who was also on that inquiry, if she were here would agree with this—in my time in this place, over nine years, it was the first time we ever had to compel a witness to appear before a Senate inquiry. Indeed, the witness, a very wealthy franchisor from Queensland, took it to the High Court, and the Senate won. The parliament won in the High Court and we had to compel this guy and his team, and his band of lawyers, to come to this parliament and answer questions. That's how important this inquiry was to help represent the small businesses and the people behind those small businesses, the franchisees, in this country. There are nearly 76 recommendations, many if which are reflected in this bill today.

I understand there are currently around 2.4 million small businesses operating in Australia, which is around 90 per cent of all businesses, employing roughly 4.7 million people, which is around 41 per cent of Australia's workforce. I've run a small business myself, though I'm not sure whether you'd say successfully or not. I wound my company up recently because I became a senator and could no longer be a winemaker, but my wife is still very successfully running a small business, which employs 25 people in my local town of Launceston. We understand what it's like to run a small business and employ people and how difficult it can be to be the only one getting up in the morning to make sure that the wheels are turning—that employees are getting paid and clients are getting serviced.

Franchisees are an important part of this small business community. There are nearly 100,000 franchise businesses in Australia, employing over half a million people. Franchisees provide everything from food to entertainment to personal household services, often with globally or nationally recognised names but always with local flavour and connection. Although it's never been easy for small businesses, it's probably never been tougher than it is right now. I'm very glad the government listened to many of us in here and brought in JobKeeper at the beginning of this global pandemic. I, myself, was one of the first people calling for a living wage. I know there were other people in this place that were also looking at what was happening in New Zealand and the UK. I spoke to COSBOA, a number of small business associations around the country and the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce, my home state, and asked them to lobby really hard to get a living wage for workers, because we didn't want to shut our businesses down. We were told we couldn't open. We were told we couldn't operate. People couldn't come and see us, yet we didn't want to shut those businesses down. We didn't want to send workers to join the Centrelink queue.

We wanted an alternative, and the government, to their credit, after a couple of weeks, listened to the trade unions and the chambers of commerce. It was a really interesting alliance between business and the union movement to help deliver this living wage. It wasn't perfect; it needed lots of tweaking and it probably was not the way we would have designed it if we'd had a chance, but, nevertheless, I think we in this place all agree that paying workers a living wage during tough times like this has worked really well. It really is one of the few things that have kept us literally—pardon the pun!—in business in the last 12 months.

On top of that, we have technological disruptions and a flatlining economy, and, of course, we're not through this pandemic yet, not by a long shot. With an exit rate of around 13 per cent, small business failure is on the increase and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. If the government was serious about supporting its economic engine room, it would accept the 71 recommendations made by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services and their report The operation and effectiveness of the Franchising Code of Conduct, instead of just fiddling at the margins. A good start to that commitment would be supporting this bill here today, and I am genuinely surprised that the government isn't supporting it. The Greens stand with the Ombudsman, with the unions, with the peak bodies and with Australian small businesses and franchisees in supporting this bill.

Lastly, may I congratulate Senator O'Neill for bringing this bill forward. I know the amount of hard work she put into that inquiry and into getting this bill here today. May I also acknowledge former senator John 'Wacka' Williams, who Senator O'Neill and I and others worked with very closely over many years. I participated in this inquiry but I certainly wasn't a driver like these two were. I know over the years Wacka contributed to much good that's been done in this place. I urge the government to support this bill.