Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

The intent of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Fair Go for Consumers and Small Business) Bill 2024 is to improve the ACCC complaints process. It is a one-schedule amendment to establish a new designated complaints function. That amendment gives the relevant minister the power to appoint entities as 'designated complainants' whose designated complaints must be assessed and responded to by the ACCC within 90 days. The ACCC may take further action in relation to a designated complaint if the complaint relates to significant or systemic market issues that affect consumers or small businesses. It's far from perfect. The coalition is supportive, though, of policy that can have a positive impact.

The bill has the potential to increase efficiency in the complaints process. Those of us who have actually run a business and had customers and clients know the value of certainty and a timely response. As businesses suffer during the Albanese government's management of the economy through a cost-of-living crisis, this is a necessary measure. When deciding if an applicant shall be regarded as a designated complainant, the minister must take into account two key considerations. The first is the applicant's experience and ability in representing the interests of consumers or small businesses or both in relation to a range of market issues that affect them. The second is the extent to which the applicant will act with integrity. That's a good thing. However, it is reliant on fair and reasonable use of ministerial power.

The opposition will not be providing the government with unfettered powers. The bill must not be used as a chance for the government to reward its union paymasters or its favourites. The critical unknown is who the Albanese government will appoint to these positions. It will demonstrate how much integrity this Labor government has in its election promise to protect and empower the interests of small business. Even the National Farmers' Federation, the peak national body representing farmers and more broadly agriculture across Australia, is calling for transparency on such appointments as well as greater public guidance. As much progress as this bill could potentially make, I'm doubtful the Albanese Labor government will be able to maximise and make the appropriate use of it. Like a painful repeat cycle, over promising and under delivering is the hallmark of this government.

This bill does not reverse the impact of this government's bad economic decisions nor does it claw back a solid, sensible economic agenda, and, as a consequence, Australians will continue to suffer. The best way to give a fair go to customers and small business is to reduce the costs of goods such as input costs, freight, importation costs and utilities. Since the Albanese government came into government with the help of the Australian Greens, the cost of mortgages has gone up. The cost of food has gone up by nine per cent, housing by 12 per cent, insurance by 22 per cent, and gas is also up by 27 per cent.

Electricity is one of the main increasing costs. I'm not sure what communities or people you talk to when you claim electricity prices are going down. In who's world is the price of electricity going down? Well, it's not in South Australia and it's not in households, it's not in the business community and it is not in industries. This government likes to speak volumes, but jetting into Darwin while avoiding the issues in Alice Springs indicates a characteristic of avoiding exposure to those who are likely to tell you what you do not want to hear.

So how can there be trust that Labor will progress the issues based on what is fair rather than what suits its agenda and that Labor will use that ministerial discretion to maximum effect without fear or favour? The backbone of our economy are the small and family businesses, which are undeniably in a worse position since the Albanese government came to power. Australian small businesses employ more than one million people and add $500 billion to the national GDP. Small and family businesses are employers of Australians. They are hurting right now and the people they employ are also hurting.

We know Australians are paying more tax than when Labor won the 2022 election. We know Australians have paid more for just about everything since then. Fast efficient progression of complaints, if done right, of course will have a beneficial impact. Lifeline told me just last week the number of calls to their crisis phone and text lines has gone up due to issues of family and domestic violence, substance misuse. Australians, more and more of them, as consumers and customers, are struggling with the cost of living and they are on the end of Lifeline's phone and text lines. Appointments for financial services are in extraordinary demand. People need complaints dealt with more efficiently because they are the beneficiaries when it is done right. Australians need competition policy responses that empower consumers, whether they are wholesale or retail consumers, wherever they connect in the supply chain. This government doesn't understand that, when it increases the cost of doing business, it is always going to hurt more and more people.

More government intervention is the hallmark of Labor governments. Rolling out more red tape is not economic good management; it just adds more cost to doing business and it is the consumer that pays. While Australians are counting their dollars and cents to make ends meet, my colleague Angus Taylor in the lower house has discovered the Albanese government has added $209 billion in spending since it came to power. That is more than $20,000 of extra spending for every single household. There has not been an increase in real wages. Australians know that. They know that because their dollar does not buy more; it buys less.

This Albanese government is proving what we were saying before they were elected with the support of the Australian Greens—that is, when Labor runs out of money, they come after yours. Labor tells you every single taxpayer is better off by $15 under its tax reform backflip, but bracket creep and cost of living means this simply isn't true. It's impossible to be true under Labor's economic mismanagement.

It was never going to be easy under Prime Minister Albanese, and here we are. Everything is harder, more uncertain and more expensive under this Albanese government. Australians know it is the coalition that is better at delivering good consumer outcomes, supporting strong competition policy, supporting small and family businesses and, in turn, encouraging hardworking, aspirational Australians. The coalition will always advocate for lower, simpler, fairer taxes and will always and unashamedly fight for hardworking Australians through fiscal policy that provides aspiration, opportunity and prosperity for all Australians.

In the federal seat of Boothby, in my home state of South Australia, just this month there was yet another story of pain from the people running businesses that put money into the pockets of Australians and into government coffers. Boothby businesses are desperate. An industrial workshop in Boothby shared that it is worried it can't survive with the increasing cost of doing business. The owner is exasperated. His dreams, hopes and aspirations are being killed by this Albanese government's handiwork, with no policy relief in sight.

While those opposite focused on their failed $400 million Voice referendum, made big announcements with delayed delivery and broke promise after promise, hardworking Australians, including nearly four million businesses and many millions of Australians who rely on small and family businesses for their jobs, saw and heard that the Labor Party was not focused on them. While they waited for you to turn your attention to them, their cost of living and of doing business went up and up and up.

In Boothby I'm talking about a business that survived Labor's 1990s so-called 'recession we had to have', a business that survived COVID shutdowns, a business that's been going since the 1960s, a business now unlikely to survive this Albanese government. In the business owner's own words: 'Everything is out of control. Everything costs more money. The rising cost of power is through the roof. I will have to close.' It is devastating to hear those words from somebody who built a business based on aspiration and expected a reward for hard work. It's not a business that can be dismissed as one with a bad business plan; this is a business that likely won't survive the Albanese government's bad economic plan.

Another Boothby example is a local food-processing company trying to look after its customers without passing on costs, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to do that. In another example, a homewares and fashion business owner is now working on the register at Brighton even when ill to ensure the doors stay open, but she told me that that's unsustainable. She should be working on the business, not in it, but, because of the Albanese government's economic plan, she can't. She told us that, where previously she spent thousands at wholesale markets, she now can't do that without cash flow, nor can she hold stock while her customers are mostly looking for sale items. That's the reality of running a business under this Labor government.

I know most of you on the other side of this chamber have a lifetime of working with unions, in parliament or both, but those of us who have established and run businesses know that businesses exist to make profit. There has to be reward for hard work and reward for responsibility; otherwise, why would you do it?

Increasing power bills are a frequent conversation in South Australia because in South Australia the average wholesale price in 2023 was amongst the highest in Australia. South Australians know it. Australians too know they are paying more for power. SA Power Networks, the single power distribution network for my entire home state, has seen a $696 cumulative increase in power bills under this government. That's a more than 33 per cent increase. For a Prime Minister that promised 97 times during the election campaign to cut every Australian's power bills by $275, there are many millions of Australians who didn't see that happen. Customer complaints have risen by 42 per cent over the same period, but you don't need a complaints mechanism to tell you something is very wrong. Just get on with fixing it.

Since the last election, power bills have risen by a cumulative $1,288 for small businesses. So what has the Albanese government done? The evidence is clear. It's not much, and it's certainly not fast enough. People are struggling now. Business is struggling now. Industry is struggling right now. Talk of hydrogen plants and more windfarms does nothing for the here and now. As I acknowledge this bill—it makes amendments to establish a new designated complaints function—I have low expectations for the capability to actually deliver. We know how you honour your promises: you just don't. We know that you are big on announcements but abysmal on delivery. The only shining light in this bill is that it will have minimal financial impact—or so you tell us.