Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

It has watched just about everything imaginable. The only thing it has not done is take concrete decisions and show leadership. Confidence is the glue which binds the operation of markets and our economy. Through its lack of leadership and its indecision, the government has presided over that very collapse in confidence. We need to look at the facts to see the degree to which confidence has actually fallen and the impact on our economy. Let us look at small business confidence. Small business confidence has fallen 57.4 points since the election of the Rudd government. This is the worst result in a Sensis survey since the survey started, in 1993. The Commonwealth Bank ACCI Business Expectations Survey for the June quarter shows the lowest level of business confidence since the survey began, in 1994. The ACCI Small Business Survey for the June quarter shows that small business conditions are at their worst since that survey began, in 1996. Sensis reported a perception amongst small businesses that federal government policies worked against them. That is what Sensis found when it consulted small business—unlike the findings of a raft of reviews. When it actually talked to small business, what did it find? It found that federal government policies were working against small business.

In November 2007 attitudes towards the Australian government’s policies were at 29 per cent. By August 2008 they had fallen to minus 28 per cent. And this federal government has the least support from small-and medium-sized enterprises of any government in Australia. That means that small business has even less confidence in this government than it does in the New South Wales state government, potentially the worst state government in Australia’s history.

See this speech in context