Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Opportunity and freedom are fundamental values of the Australian Labor Party. Starting or building a small business grasps these freedoms and the opportunities that this country offers our citizens. I'm proud of the small, medium and family businesses in the electorate of Perth. Equally, I'm proud to be a taxpayer. Paying tax is a symbol of being an advanced economy, and small businesses paying tax is a symbol of their success in our market economy. I would note that the opposition is supporting this bill but also supporting the restoration of penalty rates for some 700,000 working Australians. We believe that you can support small business and working Australians at the same time.

Perth is an entrepreneurial city; equally, I want it to be an international city. Our history is international; it's entrepreneurial. You only need to look at the history of Northbridge and the Italian and Greek migration that powered the businesses in that area to know that Western Australia, and Perth in particular, has a proud entrepreneurial and multicultural history and a proud entrepreneurial and multicultural future. There are some 25,000 small businesses in the electorate of Perth, including 1,700 businesses earning between $2 million and $10 million, who will all benefit from these changes. It's those local small businesses that make Perth, in my opinion, the best place in Australia to live, work and raise a family.

Like many of the other speakers in this debate, I would have to say there are certain small businesses that help you more than others. I'll start by giving some shout-outs to the small businesses that keep me caffeinated on a regular basis: Modus, Bossman, Finlay & Sons, Mary Street Bakery and Wine Rooms by Harvey Leigh's. I also note those businesses that don't just do retail but have a role in education, places like Beaufort Street Books, The Stripey Horse, Planet Books, Luna cinema and early childhood centres owned by small business operators. And, of course, there are those businesses who welcome tourists—The Queens Hotel, The Royal, Fraser's Restaurant at Kings Park—a range of independent hotels based in the CBD, and even places like McDonald's, where I once worked, have an important very important role in tourism and welcoming new visitors to Australia. I think we should also remember, when we talk about small businesses, that often it is those large businesses, particularly in the mining industry in Western Australia, that provide the ballast and the stable regular business that small businesses rely on and enable people to make that first leap out on their own.

I hope that this bill doesn't just drive business owners to deliver more but that it also encourages them to create more and get closer to their dream, whatever their business is aiming to do. Equally, I would say to young people who are possibly listening to this debate or may have me passed on to them at some time in the future: note that this bill is being dealt with in an urgent and bipartisan fashion. I hope this sends a message to young Australians that we are relying on them to start the next generation of small businesses. Many young Australians are currently completing their year 12 exams and having conversations about what they want to do next. The conversation should not be just about university, TAFE or work. The conversation must include: 'What sort of a business would you like to build now or in the future?'

Building new businesses is fundamentally Australian. It's going to be key to our future. It's also a key part of our history. In my family, my late grandfather Alan and my grandmother Joan built a home and then a home business in Gosnells in the foothills of Perth. WA & J King is now a large, successful family business supplying sawdust, woodchips and other supplies to farms and gardens around Perth and the inner regional areas of Western Australia. They also proudly supplied the woodchips for the gardens at the Perth Optus Stadium. It was this small business that allowed Joan and Alan to raise my mother and fund her education. It has provided intergenerational stability and employment for the family. It has given back to the community through employment and philanthropy and by helping build institutions like a local community bank in Gosnells. I'm so proud of what Alan and Joan built and Joan continues to lead, and I'm proud to have such a successful small business as part of my family's story.

In concluding my remarks, I commend the shadow Treasurer for his leadership in supporting small business and family business. Some of the other measures that Labor has introduced will ensure that we provide the skills necessary for those businesses to grow and reach their potential—uncapping university places and investing in research to ensure that we have the intellectual capital so that businesses, small, medium, family and large, can achieve all they want to; providing 100,000 TAFE places with no up-front fees to make sure we have that skilled workforce; investing in the early years of education for three- and four-year-olds; investing in clean renewable energy; and ensuring multinational companies pay their fair share. I commend the bill.

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