Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the members on both sides of the House for staying behind to approve this MPI. This is important because the small business community of regional Australia is entering a difficult phase on the back of the year of the global financial crisis with, for example, no cheques arriving in the letterbox in the next couple of months to get them through with retail spending throughout the Christmas period. That is the reason for raising this MPI, along with the end of a range of measures such as the small business tax break at the end of December, which I would ask the government to consider extending until we are very clear that the impacts of the GFC are over, particularly with regard to regional and rural Australia. I want to quote to the House from a report by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations about my region of Australia that was received only this week. It says:

The Mid-North Coast has been one of the most persistently disadvantaged regions in Australia in recent decades and continues to experience high levels of disadvantage. Indeed, a high proportion of the region’s working age population is on income support, while the region’s participation rate of 49.2 per cent in September 2009 remains well below the comparable rate for Australia of 65.1 per cent.

The region’s reliance on at-risk industries, particularly retail trade when the impact of the cash payments begins to recede, and well below average levels of educational attainment suggest that not only is the region currently disadvantaged but may also deteriorate further as the impact of the GFC—

or global financial crisis—

deepens.

So, for all the talk by many over the last month that we are through the worst of the global financial crisis and that we should be winding back the stimulus, I would argue, from a regional perspective and from a small business community perspective, that that is the last thing that government should be doing right now. It is for this reason that this afternoon I put the case for the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy, who is at the table, and the executive to consider the argument that the small business tax break in particular should be extended beyond the 31 December date. I ask that to be considered particularly in the interests of regional small business even if the extension is only in respect of businesses with turnovers under $2 million where an asset of over $1,000 that is purchased becomes applicable for the small business tax break. That would be of direct benefit to the small business community in regions such as mine and throughout Australia for the next six to 12 months, providing a buffer against what is still unknown through that period.

From what I have just read out, you would note that DEEWR themselves are expressing concerns about the future of the mid-North Coast—and I am sure many of the regions are in a similar state—and therefore there needs to be some consideration of further assistance and further support, and the most obvious assistance, from a government perspective, is through the use of tax breaks and tax mechanisms. We have seen some very good support through tax schemes such as those for fuel tax credits and for research and development changes applying to the small business community for tax credits. I would argue that while both of those schemes are continuing the small business tax break would sit very well alongside them as a third prong in providing a buffer and some support for the small business community through the next six to 12 months. So I put that to the minister and to the executive to consider, and hopefully we can hear some good news on that soon.

The importance of the small business community to a region such as mine and regional areas generally is without question, and I think the community is generally recognised by both sides of this chamber as the engine room of regional Australia and of regional life. On the mid-North Coast of New South Wales 95 per cent of the business community is small business. The definition of small business that I use is businesses with five employees or fewer. I know we hear from government a whole range of different definitions about small business, from under 100 employees to under 25 and to under 20. These are genuinely small business operators of microbusinesses and home based businesses and therefore they are not normally the ones to be trawling the corridors of this place to gain benefits through the use of lobbyists and the various ways that vested interests can influence public policy. Their businesses are genuinely the engine room of Australia’s economy and its productivity and therefore deserve some good reflection and some good support from ministers and the executive.

I also mention the Fair Work Bill and the fair work process, which came up in question time, with regard to the nationalising of the industrial relations and occupational health and safety systems. I think that is of great significance to regional small business operators if it is done right. It is a quagmire for small business operators to have to work their way through state and federal legal systems, public and private industrial relations systems and occupational health and safety systems and unfair dismissal laws at various levels and industrial relations commissions at various levels. I think it is a significant breakthrough that we have reached a moment in this parliament’s history when we have seen in the last six months a government putting forward a nationalising of laws and an opposition saying they are 99.98 per cent, in the words of the Leader of the Opposition, in support of that. This is therefore a significant moment in time. But I put a rider on that by saying that when we get down to the detail of some of this legislation it cannot be at the expense of the small business operators in the regions. I quote the example of the hospitality award and the debate that is going on at the moment about the implications of that award. All the various state awards have been thrown into one document and that is creating huge concerns in regional areas, particularly tourism areas such as the mid-North Coast, where new laws are now coming in that potentially see penalties kick in after seven o’clock every day of the week from Monday to Friday.

That is just not going to work in a regional tourism town. That will see a loss of jobs. It will create the absurd situation where on public holidays, days when everyone wants to go out and enjoy themselves and go to coffee shops and restaurants, the doors will be closed because the penalty rates will be too high. So I again ask the government, the executive and the minister to look at some of the details of these changes. While the overall concept is great and everyone is cheering about finally having a national scheme, if, once we burrow into the detail, it is just an exercise of throwing a whole lot of different state based awards together and hoping for the best, then that is not going to work in the regional small business community’s best interests. I particularly flag the restaurant and catering—the hospitality award—bill that is currently being considered and ask for government to look at it through the eyes of regional restaurants and consider the impacts on them, particularly with regard to penalty rates.

I also put on the record my request for some government consideration of the much spoken about but sadly not acted upon issue of decentralisation. We saw it again in a report delivered in this place last night. An excellent report was brought down by the chair of the infrastructure committee, the member for Ballarat, which considered the question of the impact of the global financial crisis on regional Australia. Recommendation 7 and recommendation 8 basically dragged out the same idea that comes up in every single committee, looking at any topic, when committees head to regional areas—that is, this issue of getting government businesses and government departments into the regions. The word ‘decentralisation’ was not used, but basically the concept was thrown up again. Again, the concept has a great deal of support from regional members on both sides, but it is like pulling teeth to get government departments to recognise the benefits to them in being based in a regional area.

There was an example of it last night: in Victoria a government department went regional and, once it happened, they could not be happier. The workforce is secure, they are happy with their lifestyle and the costs are lower to run a business from a regional location. Once it happens, they realise, ‘My goodness, this is the greatest thing that ever happened.’ But getting it to happen is, as I said, like pulling teeth. So once again I say to the minister in the chair, the minister for small business, and to the executive: look at the whole list of committee reports of the last decade and beyond. Once they start to look in regional locations, the recommendation about decentralisation comes up time and time again. Let us get serious about it. If need be, let us push government departments out the door of Canberra into the regions and we will have better government delivery as a consequence. It is guaranteed.

I also flag the ongoing issue that has been wrapped up in stimulus but was an election commitment from this government. A huge success in the regions that I represent is increases of direct money from the Commonwealth to local government. I know the previous government did it in various roads programs—the Roads to Recovery and the Black Spot programs—and the current government has expanded that into community infrastructure. In regional locations, the councils are in many ways the lifeblood of activity, and so this has been a significant project over the last 12 to 18 months. We have seen 30 to 40 projects in communities with between 50,000 and 100,000 people. That is significant work for the small business community. Once we start heading down the path of coming out of the GFC—we hope—I would like to see this direct financing from the Commonwealth to local government continue and expand further than even where we currently are into a whole range of different projects. The community infrastructure program is an important project that I would hope continues beyond stimulus.

I also mention regional development associations. I am not sure about other regions of Australia, but, after a two-year gap, we have now finally on the mid-North Coast got an RDA up and running. The question of financing is still an open-ended one. While there is some money on the table for administration and small projects, if the RDA process and regional development itself are going to be treated seriously by the Commonwealth, then we need to see more money going into the RDA network. You can argue the rights and wrongs of what happened with the area consultative committee money and Auditor-General reports under the previous government—

See this speech in context