Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a lot to learn from last week's GDP figures. Not only are we in the longest household recession in 50 years, but productivity has collapsed by 6.3 per cent since Labor came to power. When productivity is going backwards, it's absolutely impossible to grow the economy in a sustainable way. In fact, the only thing that's propping up economic growth right now is that excessive government spending. The Treasurer is trying to make a virtue of this, but it simply shows how much the private sector, particularly small business, is retreating on his watch.

The reason private sector spending has ground to a halt is that Labor have sucked the aspiration out of our economy. Recent statistics show that only eight per cent of small-business owners are under the age of 30. That's half the number of small businesses owned by young people in the 1970s. You can understand why. Why would a young person take a risk to start a small business when Jim Chalmers is simply going to hit them with higher energy prices, complex industrial relations rules and, of course, more taxes?

Just recently, I joined my friend and colleague the member for Casey, Aaron Violi, to meet with small businesses out in Healesville, Victoria. The pain that businesses feel goes so far beyond simple high inflation or high interest rates or high energy bills that are pushing up their overheads. They told us that there's an increasing amount of red tape wrapping up their ability to grow their businesses, that Labor's industrial relations changes have only made life more difficult. Keeping up with complex awards and employment rights has become a nightmare. These are businesses that don't have HR or legal departments; they have mums and dads who do their business during the day and then go home and do the books at night.

The only way to get the economy moving again is to put the economic settings in place that will allow businesses to grow. Productivity is essential for our prosperity. (Time expired)