Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to inform the House this morning that, since the federal election, confidence in the future has soared across my electorate of Page. In the latest quarterly business confidence survey conducted by Griffith University, 72 per cent of businesses in Page said the election of the new, coalition government gave them new hope and that many were now planning to employ more people. This is a major turnaround from the gloom and doom of a pre-election survey, which showed a 20 per cent fall in confidence between July and August last year.

Griffith University Pro Vice-Chancellor of Business, Professor Michael Powell, who conducted the survey, put the reason for this collapse in confidence squarely at the feet of the previous, Labor government and its job-destroying carbon tax. The recent poll is a tick from my local business community for the direction of the new government—from the scrapping of the job-destroying carbon tax to naming 19 March as our first national repeal day, when we will get rid of thousands of pieces of regulation that are stifling the 10,000 small- to medium-sized business in my electorate and those around the country. I thank the many people who have been into my office—people from small businesses, not-for-profit organisations and from almost every sector across our community—who have told me of the legislation that they would like to see repealed, because there is so much of it.

Our agriculture sector has also hailed the benefits of our recently signed free trade agreement with Korea, which will slash tariffs on our exports—in some cases from as high as 300 per cent to nothing. The chief executive of the Casino based Northern Co-operative Meat Company, Simon Stahl, declared it as very advantageous for our cattle farmers. Given the current drought they need every assistance they can get.

This is why 58 per cent of businesses hold positive or highly positive views about the year ahead, with only 14 per cent remaining negative. Businesses are already reporting the benefits, with more than 40 per cent saying that they just notched up the best Christmas-New Year period. Conditions are set to improve even further, with Professor Powell predicting that the declining Australian dollar will lead to more in-bound international tourism. The weaker dollar will also assist local companies to export their goods. In a region with an unemployment rate above the national average, 17 per cent of Page's local businesses said that they were planning to increase their staff levels, while 74 per cent said that they would maintain staff levels—an increase of 20 per cent. Again, that is a dramatic turnaround from the previous survey.

For six years, regional Australia has been bleeding due to a dysfunctional government, but this survey shows that, with the new, coalition government we are on track to bring jobs and economic growth back to Page.