Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party had plenty of opportunity to vote for small business, and it voted against these bills twice in the House and twice in the Senate. Labor is not the party of small business; Labor is the party of big unions and big union leaders. The World Bank’s latest publication, Doing Business 2007, ranked Australia eighth out of 175 economies in the world for doing business. We were the second-best country in the world for the ease of starting a business, third for the ease of accessing credit, seventh for enforcing contracts and ninth for employing workers.

I cannot let this opportunity go past without paying acknowledgement to the Minister for Small Business and Tourism for all the work she did in relation to these reforms; she did a fabulous job. I also acknowledge the wonderful work Senator Boswell did in the Senate and, indeed, the constructive work Senator Fielding did in getting the legislation through the Senate after 12 months of Labor Party delay—a great day for small business.

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