Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton, a good friend colleague and neighbour—he is the member for an electorate neighbouring mine. I know that, through all his work before he was elected and, since that, he was dedicated to supporting the small business community of the south side of Brisbane. This is the 27th question that I have received from the government side of the chamber on small business matters. I want to thank each and every member of the Rudd Labor government for their interest and support in small business. It is my melancholy duty to advise the House that it is now 517 days since I last got a question from the shadow small business minister, which is two days longer than the siege of Leningrad.

In the May budget, the Rudd government allocated $10 million to help small businesses go online to take full advantage of the opportunities that will be offered by the National Broadband Network. I thank the Prime Minister for his support for that initiative. Indeed, there has been very strong interest in the delivery of this program, with more than 300 applications having been received for that funding program. We expect to announce the successful applicants by the end of next month. I am asked also about existing online information for small businesses. I can advise the House that the government website business.gov.au is proving both popular and very effective. A recent survey of users found that last month there were 472,000 visits to that website and that it helped achieve median savings to businesses of $325. So that is good news.

business.gov.au, however, is not the only website providing information to small business. In fact, the shadow small business minister operates his own website and it provides criticism of the government’s small business policies. We expect that from the coalition—just criticism, no constructive comment. But on a related website the shadow small business minister urges local residents ‘to get behind my alcohol-free October to help raise money and educate children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol’. That is good. On 27 September the Gold Coast Bulletin reported on this good initiative, and said that the shadow minister, in promoting an alcohol-free month of October—called ‘Ocsober’—had ‘signed up to stay sober for the entire month’. That is good. But today the Gold Coast Bulletin has run a story headed, ‘Ciobo busted drinking in Ocsober’. That is bad.

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