Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Bill 2015. The dry part of this speech will be outlining exactly what we are trying to do here. This bill contains amendments to extend the consumer unfair contract terms protections in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 to cover small business contracts valued below a prescribed threshold. You will find that over 1,375 complaints were made to this, so this is something that we took to the election in 2013 and said that we would address this issue. I believe that this bill, in a large part, does do that.

What is covered in this bill? At the time of this agreement, the contract must meet the following criteria: at least one party is a business which employs fewer than 20 persons by headcount, excluding casuals, and the consideration under the contract that is disclosed at the time does not exceed $100,000 or $250,000 if the contract is more than one year in duration. Based on 2014 data, over 80 per cent of business contracts will be covered by these reforms. This will allow a court to void any unfair term of the formed contract. For example, a term that allows the business offerer in the contract to unilaterally change the price or key terms could be considered unfair. This will give small businesses greater confidence to enter into contracts, invest and grow.

I just want to assure my small businesses and my subcontractors in my area that there are still questions that have to be addressed. The thing I like most about what Minister Bruce Billson and Treasurer Joe Hockey are doing in this space is that they understand that this is not a panacea. They understand that this is not going to cover absolutely everything, because it is only 80 per cent of the contract signed by people in this space. But what is a contract? My definition of a contract is an agreed price between two parties. It does not even have to be in writing. How does that transpose into where we are going with competition and consumer protection and where we are going with that ASIC style of things when most people—subcontractors and that—do a lot of this work by a handshake or by an agreement on a broad range of things. Sometimes, there is very little stuff that is actually written down.

I always remember one great story about a mate of mine who was asked to quote on a job by a friend of his. My mate is a block layer. He gave him a quote and the builder, his mate, said, 'Look, you've missed out by a long shot. You've come second by a long way.' My mate, the block layer, said, 'That's weird, because I've gone in pretty hard on this. I'm surprised that I'm so far away from winning the job, but that's okay. If he's prepared to do it for that price, let him go with it.' Now, the other guy has gone on and gone broke. He has failed in his duty to finish the job. The builder has then rung up my mate, after the subcontractor had gone belly up, and said, 'Listen, mate. I'm in all sorts of strife over this. I need you to come in and finish this job.' My mate has said, 'I'll do it for you, but I'm not doing it for his price. I'm doing it for my price.' The builder said, 'Anything, anything.' So they shook hands and away they went. My mate finished the work, put in his cheque and got back the amount of money that was under the previous agreement. My mate played rugby league for a fair while and is not backward in coming forward, and block layers are by nature not shrinking violets. He has fronted this bloke and said, 'Mate, you have given me the wrong figure.' The builder said, 'No, we never agreed to that.' My mate took him to court over this and because there was nothing in writing the court decided that it would not hold up.

This bill will not protect people who do not dot their i's and cross their t's. This bill will not protect people who go out of their way and sign jobs for unrealistic figures. Government cannot protect people from agreeing to do work for figures that will send them broke. We have seen in my city a number of people on a number of jobs driving around now. I have spoken in this place before about truck drivers and tipper drivers with a quad dog that have been seemingly forced to take roles where they cannot make money. There seems to be two levels of pay here. That is a real issue and we must decide what has to be done.

Too many of these people that get into trucks and get into their own businesses are not in those businesses because they have a bachelor degree in economics or accounting and are able to plan these things correctly; they are in these businesses because they are good truck drivers, they know how to maintain a truck and they know how to drive a truck. They financed themselves into a truck during the boom times from the mid-2000s onward when there was lots of work on. They would have been driving for someone and then went out and worked for themselves.

The stories that are coming through to me are that too often people in this industry are running their businesses through their overdraft on their house or against their mortgage or against their property. They have $20,000 coming in a month and they think they are going to be okay, but what about their outgoings? They do not know over the course of the contract where they are going to end up. They do not have the wherewithal to do those things. It is not the business of this bill and it is not the business of the Treasurer or the Minister for Small Business to protect these people from signing these things, but it is a major issue in my electorate.

We are talking about the development of Northern Australia. We are talking about growing the population north of the Tropic of Capricorn from about one million today to between five and six million by 2050. That will not be developed and sustained by big business. That will not be developed and sustained by government. What will develop and sustain it is small business. For example, we have just seen another technical argument launched against the Adani Carmichael Mine project by an environmental group which has access to funds to fight litigation—what the Attorney-General has called environmental 'lawfare'. They are able to hold up a project on complete and utter nonsense, as far as I am concerned. We are talking about two endangered species which are in the legislation, which are in the terms of operation and which are in consideration of everything to do with the mine but they are not in a particular briefing paper. Therefore, we have once again been told that we have to hold back.

What we look like as an investment destination is not important to North Queenslanders. The fate of India and its power needs are not important to North Queenslanders. The fact that capital is very mobile and these sorts of projects do not go ahead are not problems for North Queenslanders. We are exposed because we are the ones who will build this thing, who will do the roads, who will build the bridges, who will build the houses, who will build the mine equipment and who will support the mine equipment. We are the ones who will provide food, accommodation and transport for the mine. It is the biggest industry in Queensland and here we are mucking around with these sorts of things and it does not seem to matter what contracts have been signed in that space.

We are talking about small business, and this government does take small business seriously. If we are to develop the north of Australia we must make sure that what we are doing in this space not only supports small business but is seen to support small business. We must be seen as a parliament that understands that from the bloke who turns up with the pie van to give the guys their smoko to the people that work from the port all the way out to Carmichael Mine and back to form the triangle at Abbot Point that there are jobs in there sustaining small businesses not just in towns but Charters Towers, Bowen, Ayr, Home Hill, all the way out to Clermont and all those places in between. Those are the things that we have to do as a government and those are the things that we have to do as a region in Northern Australia to make sure that we are sending the right messages to small business.

A lot of this stuff that we are doing with small business here is about sending the message that we understand the pressures that small businesses are under. We understand that people do not start their small businesses because they love filling out forms. We understand that small business people do not do this because they want to do more compliance work. What we as a government must do is send the message to small business that we are with you, that we support you, that we will get our hand out of your pocket, that you will no longer be tax collectors for us and compliance officers for us, and that you will be the people who create the wealth, create the jobs and create the prosperity for our region and for our country into the future. That is what we must do as an organisation in this place. That is why this bill here is a great start.

All these measures we have done about these things in isolation are not a panacea, they are not a fillip and they are not a cure-all. What they do is send the message to the people of this country that we understand where the jobs are created and that we understand where the wealth is created. What we are seeing in my region too often is that the big businesses come in and do the big infrastructure projects and the profit does not stay in Northern Queensland and the profit does not wash through our region. What we have to do is send the message to small business that they will be supported, and if they are on a contract that it will be fair and that it will be paid. I do not know how we can properly protect people who do subcontract work with government contracts because sometimes people work for less because it is government work and they are guaranteed a payment.

Only the person who signed the contract is guaranteed a payment. The person who is working on the site as a subcontractor or as a contractor is as exposed on government work as he is on any private work—if the builder goes belly up, he is exposed. When you are a contractor or a block layer, there is no way in the world you can go back to take your blocks back. You can, in some instances, go in and get your scaffolding equipment and those sorts of things, but you cannot pull your concrete up and you cannot get the steel in that concrete to take it back for a refund.

We as a government must send the tacit message to small business: we understand that you are under pressure, we understand where you want to go and we are doing what we can to make sure you are going to get there. Our message is: if you want to grow your business and if you are prepared to risk your home to give your children and your family a better chance to self-determination, then you should be supported. That is what I like about this bill and this suite of bills that the Treasurer and the Minister for Small Business are bringing forward.

Labor did not have a policy on this in the 2013 election, and they are completely bored when it comes to these sorts of things. There are people on the other side who have had their own small business, and they should be supporting this. What we should be doing is making sure that these things are brought forward. We have to instil confidence in our community that we are in this; that we will back you and we will do whatever we can to make sure that you are able to deliver your product on time, on price and for the amount of money that you signed up for.

That is what this bill tries to do. Will it cover everything? Of course it will not, but it is certainly a message that I like to give to small businesses back at home, in Townsville, throughout North Queensland and for the entire development of Northern Australia: that what we are doing as a government is building those buildings, putting those markers of what we stand for and the direction we want to go. The Minister for Small Business has said—and this is a bloody beauty and I will back him on it—that all anyone in this country is after is a traditional fair go. There are kids up in the gallery, behind the glass, whose parents will have small businesses and whose parents work very hard—and all weekend to keep their trucks clean—and this bill is all about making sure that your parents are able to have a fair go. When you graduate from school and you want to take the opportunity to set up your own small business—be it as a fitter and turner or a boilermaker or a truck driver or anything you want to do—there is a government here today that is putting the markers down and prepared to support you when it is your turn. So make sure that when you go home and tell your mum and dad that there is a government here that supports them. I thank the House.

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