Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question and for her very passionate support for small businesses. Over the past 12 months, small businesses have been speaking out very strongly in support of the Howard government exempting them from Labor’s unfair dismissal laws. Since becoming the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Griffith has said that Labor would listen to small business on this very important issue of unfair dismissals. In fact, when asked on ABC radio on 28 March about the Labor Party’s policy on unfair dismissals, the Leader of the Opposition said in no uncertain terms:

Julia Gillard at present is working that through with the small business community ... trying to get the balance right

Earlier, on Channel 10, the deputy leader said:

I’m prepared to talk to small business on the substance of their concerns and see what we can do to address those concerns. That’s a genuine offer, it’s a serious offer.

Then, of course, we had the member for Rankin—who unfortunately appears to have gone missing in action—in a memorable interview with Madonna King on 28 February. He said:

… we will take account of the special circumstances of small businesses in developing our policies and we have not arrived at a position on how we will do that in terms of a precise policy because that will be released after we consult …

Small business today has spoken out very strongly with one voice. It is now time for the Labor Party to demonstrate whether in fact they have been listening. I can tell you, Mr Speaker, that after listening to the member for Rankin, the Small Business Coalition, a group of 26 small business groups, today released their policy statement which sets down their opposition to any changes to the current exemption from unfair dismissals.

I think that we should know exactly who the members of the Small Business Coalition are. Let me tell you. They are the Association of Consulting Engineers, the Australian Newsagents Federation, the Australian Petroleum Agents and Distributors Association, the Retailers Association, the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, the CPA, the Franchise Council of Australia, Master Builders Australia, the Motor Trades Association of Australia, the National Farmers Federation, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Real Estate Institute of Australia, and Restaurant and Catering Australia, plus the state chambers of commerce from the ACT, Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.

Let me advise the House of what all 26 of these small business organisations have come out today and said with one voice:

A key WorkChoices reform for small business was the introduction of the exemption for small and medium businesses from unfair dismissal claims. This exemption has finally provided small businesses with increased confidence in hiring, demonstrated by increased employment levels following the introduction of WorkChoices.

The SBC considers retention of this fundamental exemption as absolutely essential to ongoing growth and success of small businesses.

Importantly, all 26 of them say—

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