Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

It's a fine organisation, as Senator Bragg says. These increasing costs, surging electricity prices, increasing costs of maintaining property and assets and of meeting employee expenses all come together and put pressure on businesses like there is no tomorrow. In the end, if a business can't make ends meet, if they can't continue to trade, then what are they going to do? They don't operate in perpetuity. They don't just keep trading forever without facing financial pressure and ultimately closing their doors. What happens when a business closes its doors? Employees lose their jobs. I tell you what, if there's one thing worse than not getting a pay rise, it's not having a job—you don't get paid. This is the problem with this. I don't think the consequences have been properly enunciated here.

As I said, I was not intending to make a contribution on this bill; I think my colleagues have very fairly and well canvassed the concerns that have been raised by those in our community who will be impacted, both employees and employers. But there is this letter and the fact that this organisation, so central to northern Tasmania's economy, to small and medium enterprises, has not had a say. I wonder whether Senator Polley, for example, or any of the other Labor senators from Tasmania have reached out to the Launceston Chamber of Commerce. As proponents of the legislation—

I do admire Senator Urquhart's wishful thinking that when I hear an alarm I might stop, but I will not. I shall continue.

A government senator interjecting—

I know. I'm alert but not alarmed. My point, though, is that I wonder whether any of the Tasmanian Labor contingent have reached out to the Launceston Chamber of Commerce and whether they would accept my invitation today to come on down. I'll join Senator Askew when we get out of this place at the end of this week. I will drive to Launceston and I will meet you there and we can sit down with the board of this organisation—we can perhaps sit down with some of its members—and we can talk through some of their concerns.

It will be interesting to see whether they would be able to sit there and look into the eyes of these businesses that are facing these increased costs and tell them, 'Hey, don't worry. It's all a scare campaign. It will make no difference,' or whether they will hear these concerns and finally realise that these increased costs that are going to get even larger will have an impact on businesses, will have an impact on the capacity to employ and will have an impact on whether these jobs continue to exist.

How can a small business cover the cost of $14,638, on average, to engage in the bargaining process? How can a medium business fork out well on the way to $80,000? Where is that in a business's operating capital in any given year? How is this fair to mum-and-dad businesses, where the people who own the business have mortgaged their homes to ensure that they can keep businesses running. They've taken a risk. They're employing others. How is this in any way fair on those businesses?

It is the opinion of the opposition and, I'm sure, of organisations like the Launceston Chamber of Commerce that these changes will result in more industrial action. These changes will result in more strikes. These changes will result in a situation where there will be a reduction in productivity. The changes will harm the economy more broadly and, again, are going to have an impact on whether people are able to keep their jobs or not. This is the end result. This is the issue we are talking about here. Everyone wants a pay rise and—do you know what?—it's good that people get pay rises. I know that my family, who have run small businesses up until very recently, always paid above award. That's good, because you have to do that to attract good employees. No-one wants to employ a bad employee. You want to treat good employees well so they stay, so you do what you can to keep them. But in this situation, where costs are going to become so burdensome on a business, even paying the wage bill is going to become impossible. As I said before, the end result will be that a business can no longer operate. It will no longer be solvent, perhaps. It will look at laying off staff to make ends meet. To that end, I share the concerns of the Launceston Chamber of Commerce. I do support the views that they've expressed, and I look forward to Senator Brown, Senator Urquhart, Senator Polley and Senator Bilyk coming on a drive with me to Launceston to catch up with the good folk of the Launceston Chamber of Commerce and justifying to them why they support this disastrous bill.