Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

can work out that they are getting exploited. They are getting 58c, yet the product on the shelf is selling for $2.50. People are not stupid. They know where the exploitation lies. It is the Labor Party who tonight are going to assist that exploitation by the greatest benefactors of that process so far.

I will obviously be supporting my coalition colleagues in supporting the Birdsville amendment. I hope we will get the support of others on the crossbenches who I know also have deep and sincere concerns about where Labor is going on this issue. They have deep and sincere concerns about the unseen, dark lobbyists, who are controlling and manipulating the political process. They have made the Labor Party so passionate of late to protect the market centralisation of the major corporate players in this nation. This is really and truly new Labor and a new process. It is not completely out of line with the approach to politics they have in New South Wales but it is a new juncture for us here in Canberra.

This debate for small business will go on. There are other issues that also need to be dealt with. There are issues pertaining to creeping acquisitions and unconscionable conduct. We have to look into the future. Those people in the shopping malls are getting walked over and are being completely exploited. In the shopping malls all the bargaining power is held by one entity. That is another impost on the right of the Australian citizen to go into business; the right of the Australian citizen to be part of the merchant class, to buy and sell a product at a profit. It is only when the merchant class is strong that the nation is strong, that democracy is strong and that the progression of rights grows.

In closing, it is peculiar in the extreme that we now look to places such as the People’s Republic of China which have stronger protections for small business than Australia does. This is clearly spelt out by our history and the unfortunate retrograde steps of the courts in determining the rights of the individual under law in protecting their right to be in business. I also have read what Menzies said about why it is so important to maintain that structure of small business. He said, ‘Look after small business because big business are big enough to look after themselves.’ That is also a process.

This is also a return to the conservative heartland and it is from there that this nation’s rights and prosperity will grow. I look forward to the debate in the future that properly defines and enshrines more consistently—in the way that other nations did when they had our population size—the rights of people to go into business. That is the path that Australia should continue on. (Time expired)