Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

They mugged small business! And that 2014 budget which, surely, put a foot on the throat of small business more than anything else this government has done: confidence collapsed—you can track it. It collapsed straight after that 2014 budget. There was the $845 million cut to industry and small business programs—programs like Commercialisation Australia, Enterprise Solutions and Enterprise Connect. They are programs that I know the member for McPherson would be familiar with. They vandalised the Tools for your Trade program, which was about investing in the workers of the future in small business. There was $1 billion in support for apprentices abolished and then another $1 billion worth of skills and training programs gone.

When I talk to the nearly 19,000 small businesses in my electorate—admittedly, some of those are quite large—the main thing they talk about is not red tape. I am sorry, I must be talking to the wrong businesses! It is not about red tape, it is about getting skilled personnel and getting the right personnel—the appropriate personnel. That is the main problem for small business—getting the right people—because it is crucial for a single-person, a two-person or a three-person enterprise to get the right people being able to step up. That is why training was so important.

I heard the Prime Minister say about small business on 1 June:

Let us pass this bill straight away.

The Treasurer then said in question time:

So here is a challenge for the Labor Party. This legislation is going to go through the House of Representatives this week—

absolutely right—

Then it goes to the Senate—

which only has two weeks to sit—

I lay down the challenge—

to the Labor Party—

help us get that legislation through as quickly as possible.

They were obviously trying to reach out to what they saw as their core audience and also drive a wedge between the Labor Party and the government when it comes to small business. The Prime Minister has an inability to sit down and see what is in the nation's interests. He has been the most perfect opposition leader—unfortunately, he has carried that behaviour, that form, that radar into government. That is not in the best interests of this nation. If he has the sort of character that means he can rise to the top of the writhing, seething heap of aspirants in the Liberal Party to become Prime Minister, he should be able to focus on what is in the nation's interests and leave that oppositional politics, that 'Nope, nope, nope' approach, to when he is in opposition. Small business needs more support.

We support the small business legislation; we are supporting this Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill. As I said, I had some concerns about some of the public naming and shaming aspects of it, but that will be sorted out in the process. No doubt the minister might address that when it is time to respond. But to use small business as a weapon in Australian politics is disgraceful behaviour. It is almost as if the focus is on having power rather than using power. That is the sign of a leader with a fundamental flaw, an Achilles heel. If they are only going to focus on wedging, you then have to ask what is the purpose of the Liberal Party—what is the purpose if it is only to oppose? That works when you are in opposition, but not when you are in government. If you are going to be the party of small business, you must focus on all small businesses that benefit the nation, particularly with the jobs of the future. We are not, to paraphrase Napoleon Bonaparte, a nation of shopkeepers—we must be a nation focused on innovation; we must be a nation that reaches out to Asia; a nation that uses the National Broadband Network to create the jobs of the future.

I know the member for McPherson has a strong track record in this area, because I have seen some of her speeches. I know she believes in innovation—but it must be done in a strategic way, by reaching out to our near neighbours, reaching out to those 250 million customers in Indonesia, and not by creating barriers between us and them; reaching out to that emerging middle-class in China and India and Malaysia and Vietnam and selling them Australian services. I visited a small business in Salisbury in my electorate last week, barely a kilometre from my home, and I was able to see a fender manufactured that then goes onto a Volkswagen that is sold in Europe. If a Volkswagen has a crash in Europe and the fender comes off, you will see on the fender that it says 'Made in Australia.' You can see the photograph on my Facebook—how proud I was to see that business holding its own, holding its head up high and selling our products to the world. I know our labour costs and some of our other costs are higher, but Australian innovation is what should be supported.

The reality is that if the Liberal Party focuses only on division and only tries to cling to power rather than focus on the nation's interests, it will be a hollow party and any victory will be hollow. It will be a soulless husk of a party encasing only the idea of power rather than the good that comes with power. I urge those opposite to stop trying to divide this chamber on small business, stop trying to divide this chamber when it comes to all those things that are in the national interest, including security, and focus on what is best for Australia and the small businesses throughout the country—particularly those 18,000 to 19,000 small businesses in the electorate of Moreton.

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