David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on boosting small-business productivity in Australia. According to the 2021 Intergenerational report, labour productivity has contributed more than 80 per cent of the growth in Australia's living standards over the last 30 years, yet productivity growth in the decade to 2020 was the lowest it had been in the past 60 years. The Treasurer was right, then, to speak recently of 'the need to turn around Australia's longstanding sluggish productivity performance'. But what I'm hearing from small-business owners is that, far from producing more output in less time, they are working more hours on weekends and at night than ever before just to stay afloat. They are struggling with rising costs and, now, flatlining consumer spending, and they feel unseen and unsupported by policymakers.

The government seem willing to make the regulatory environment increasingly complex for small businesses, without sufficient consideration of the negative impact their decisions could have on small-business productivity. As part of the recent inquiry by the Senate Education and Employment References Committee into the role of small businesses in administrating the Commonwealth paid parental leave scheme, we heard from frustrated small-business owners who fully support paid parental leave, believing it's a great step forward as a country to commit to increasing it, but don't understand why they are required to administer a government payment. One small-business owner, a hairdresser, pointed out the impact of these kinds of unnecessary administrative burdens, saying:

You just have to deal with it and find the time in your week, probably at the expense of something else [like] spending time with my children.

We should be looking for opportunities to help streamline the activities of small-business owners, encourage the growth of their businesses and boost the productivity of their workforce.

Something I've found inspiring is my interaction with local small-business owners in the ACT. These people overwhelmingly want to contribute positively to their communities. They are ambitious; they want to spend their time solving real problems. And it's good for the economy when small businesses do this. It helps ensure a diversity of players in different markets, which leads to more innovation, more-competitive prices and consistent productivity growth. But a recent survey by CPA Australia covering 11 economies in the Asia-Pacific found that Australian businesses were the least likely to innovate by introducing a unique new product over the coming 12-months. We should be concerned about that. We want our small-business owners focusing their time on improving their goods and services and introducing new ones, not worrying about whether or not they are complying with complex laws.

Adopting new technologies is vital to innovation and productivity but it can be costly. Well-designed government incentives can help boost small-business productivity by subsidising expenditure on technological upgrades. That is why the government legislated a technology investment tax incentive in late June of this year, but this incentive expired a couple of weeks after the bill passed, leaving no time for small-business owners to become aware of and benefit from the measure.

We need to focus more on small business in this place and make it easier for small-business owners.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 1.30, we will proceed to two-minute statements.