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

Leslie Williams, the member for Port Macquarie, is a very good member. It is interesting to note that the New South Wales Business Chamber put out a press release on 5 July entitled 'NSW Business Chamber launches carbon tax campaign in Oakeshott and Windsor electorates.' This is not a personal campaign. It goes on to say:

This is a campaign about an issue that will impact the competitive position of most small business.

It goes on further to say:

Australia’s capacity to compete internationally is currently impacted by a very high Australian dollar, relatively high interest rates, relatively high fixed wages, relatively high taxes and by our geographic isolation leading to relatively higher transport costs.

… the NSW Business Chamber would continue to consult its members in New England and the Mid North Coast to see what form the campaign will take in the coming weeks and months.

They are very concerned. They do not undertake a campaign like this lightly. They undertake this campaign because they feel that their voice is not being heard and that their members' voices have not been heard by the local federal representative. So I hope the member for Lyne will heed the words of the New South Wales Business Chamber. I hope he will heed the words of small business, who are saying: 'I've got a life's work here swinging in the balance. I've mortgaged my house to capitalise my business, and I can't pay the rent at the moment. My costs are going up, and I don't want to see my electricity prices go up at a time when my turnover is falling, at a time when my motel units are empty,' or 'when there is no-one coming into my shop.' It is a real problem, and it is not one that is going to go away any time soon. For all of us in the House, it is a problem about which our constituents are looking to us for support.

There are two options here. We can continue with this misguided strategy of driving up business costs, driving down confidence and driving away opportunities for young people, or we can do the right thing—and that is to abandon this tax, abandon a tax that has destroyed confidence, abandon a tax that is going to make our businesses less competitive internationally, abandon a tax that is going to make it more difficult for small business to survive. It is a very stark choice.

I hope that the member for Lyne will see the light. I hope that he will listen to his small businesses. I ask him to walk down the main street of Port Macquarie, go into businesses and ask them how they are travelling, ask them how they are dealing with increases in costs, ask them what their strategy is for the future, ask them what they are going to do when they lose their house as a result of the business failing and ask them what it is like to be operating a business surrounded by vacant shops. It is an incred­ible problem that small business is facing at the moment. It is a problem that is getting worse and worse. People out there in our electorates are looking to us in this place to do the best we can to support them and to make business conditions just as strong as they can be from a federal perspective, but unfortunately it is a call for help that is falling on deaf ears amongst the members opposite and amongst the Independents. So I call on the member for Lyne and the member for New England to do the right thing and support their electorates, support small business and abandon this carbon tax. (Time expired)

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