Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is nothing quite like following a commercial giant and, unfortunately, I do not have that option today; I am following the member for Oxley. Firstly, I commend the member for Mitchell for proposing this motion. Secondly, I want to talk about the structure of the way the government is attacking this. I notice I will be followed in this debate by the member for Parramatta, who I believe is the shadow parliamentary secretary for small business and does have small-business background. I imagine she is lonely in the committee meetings, because, if a tree falls in the Labor forest, no-one would hear it. I would like to praise the way the Prime Minister has attacked this agenda. It will make a difference to the small-business sector. And I want to focus on SMEs.

We have an employment and an underemployment problem in this country. It will not be solved by big business, to which the member for Oxley repeatedly referred. I do not blame him, because he comes from a union background—and they engage with big business day in, day out. This will be covered by SMEs, as it always has been and always will be. That is why this reform agenda is so important. The Prime Minister has seen fit to run this agenda out of his own portfolio. In doing so, he has found the most capable man in the member for Kooyong. He has made him parliamentary secretary and tasked him solely with this responsibility. It is an honour to be able to work with him on the New South Wales side, as I have done over the past six months, to make a real difference. Seventy per cent—the most recent figures—of the employment in this country is carried out by SMEs. They are not unionised. Eighteen per cent of the workforce is unionised, and that deals with big business.

The underemployment and unemployment problems that we face in this country will not be solved by government, they will not be solved by big business and they will not be solved by unions. They will be solved by small and medium-sized businesses. The best way that government can treat the sector is by getting out of their way and giving SMEs an environment in which they can, with confidence, take on bank debt, back themselves and employ people.

As someone that comes from a small and family business background, I can speak definitively on the topic instead of just read it from a textbook like the former member of this House and doctor of economics, Craig Emerson, who in 2008 promised to take a giant pair of scissors to red tape—and we all know what happened. If you want to see what happens on the ground and how this plays out, the best example is the carbon tax. It attacks every expense in the profit-and-loss statement of every business in this country, irrespective of size. And it has a multiplier effect. It passes through the supply chain so that the eventual supplier of the service to the consumer is in a position where costs are ratcheted up on a multiplied basis.

Traditionally, business would treat expense increases by raising their prices—that is, maintaining their margins. However, we have come through six years where, at the same time as expenses ratcheting up under the former government, consumer confidence has been shot to pieces. What has happened? Small and family business cannot pass these price rises on. What happens as a result is they absorb the cost, they lose margin, their EBIT data—their earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortisation—decreases and employment suffers. I will tell you how it plays out on the ground in Reid: small and family business people work longer hours themselves, they augment their trading hours and they do things that are criminal by nature, unfortunately, and pay cash. This is how it plays out on the ground. This reform agenda is so important because it lessens time businesses spend on compliance and on regulation, which is multiplied through state and through local government.

I am pleased to say that the member for Kooyong has identified this and, I believe, is working hard with the Prime Minister to make this a COAG reform item agenda. It is so important that we work with our state and local government counterparts. As someone that has faced red tape and regulation at all three levels of government over the past 23 years, I commend not only the member for Mitchell on what he is doing but also, more importantly, the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for the agenda. For those opposite to sit here and belittle what we do shows their ignorance of the sector that we promote and will get out of the trouble it finds itself in.

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