Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad the Assistant Treasurer is here to tell us about the agenda. Perhaps he might turn his mind to the 18 days he has had the royal commission report, so he can think about how to legislate to protect Australian consumers from payday loan sharks. I'm also glad the member for Swan is here. I'm a bit sad he didn't speak about small business. It's an excellent opportunity to speak about small businesses in his electorate. I know there's the Labor candidate for Swan, Hannah Beazley, who built and maintained her very own small retail business. She would not miss an opportunity like this to talk about small businesses in Australia and the positive policies that Labor has put forward and that the coalition government is adopting to support them.

Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No. 5) Bill 2018 is an excellent win for Australian small and medium businesses. Although we know that the coalition has fought tooth and nail against this reform for many years, they have now capitulated because of the agrarian socialists of the National Party threatening to cross the floor. What a backflip! But, really, it is a very welcome one; I don't deny that.

Labor's small business access to justice policy will help small businesses to bring cases of anticompetitive behaviour to court. Currently, small businesses are much less likely to take up private litigation against big companies with deep pockets and with many good connections in the legal business. These businesses have a lot of money to spend, and small business does not. The risk of small businesses being bankrupted by legal fees is a significant disincentive to taking action against anticompetitive conduct. Labor's access to justice policy, which the government has now adopted—and I thank them for it—will level the playing field by allowing a small business to request a no-adverse costs order early in a court case. If the judge decides the case is in public interest, the small business won't have to risk paying the other side's cost if they do not win in the end.

Labor has been pushing for this change for many years. It was announced before the last election, in 2016. The member for Greenway announced it. She's very close to the policy, and it's great to have her in the chamber today to see this legislation go through the parliament. Labor introduced through senator Katy Gallagher a private senator's bill in 2017. The coalition senators voted against it then. They failed to support the same legislation we have here today 730-odd days ago and, as the member for Fenner has pointed out, they failed to support small business last week in the Senate.

But, while I'm on good ideas for small business, we know access to justice is just one measure of a wealth of policies that the Labor Party is putting forward for small businesses in this country. Since the government is enthusiastic this week about bipartisanship, perhaps they might want to consider some other Labor policies to help small businesses—a second ATO commissioner, perhaps, for appeals, so small businesses have a fair appeals process when dealing with the tax office. Every small business is unique and there is no one size fits all to tax disputes. One small business matter will differ from another. Therefore, a separate appeals area in the tax office ensures small business disputes are given the care and attention they deserve. That's why Labor is committed to establishing a second ATO commissioner, and that's an idea for free for you over there.

How about tackling unfair contracts? Currently, if a particular term in a standard-form contract signed by a small business is found to be unfair by a court or tribunal, that clause will be void and the small business will no longer be required to comply with it. There is no prohibition, however, of unfair terms being included in a contract, and this is the problem. There are no penalties or deterrents for inserting unfair contract terms into those contracts, and seeking to have a term voided is cumbersome and costly, particularly for small business. That's why we would work to legislate against unfair contract terms. We will have penalties of $10 million, which should send a great message to big businesses that try to pressure small businesses into unfair contract terms in their dealings.

Another area we could look at—we are committed to helping small business in this regard, and it's another one for you on the other side in government—is the NBN. Every time I speak to small businesses—I know the member for Greenway, as the shadow minister for communications, is the same—they lament the awful rollout of the NBN and how it adversely affects their businesses. Small business is very reliant on digital platforms. The least we can do, and what Labor will do, is make sure there is an NBN service guarantee so that small businesses can be guaranteed a service, which they're not now under this government's ridiculous rollout of the NBN. So I'm glad this legislation will pass. To those opposite: you've come to the game too late, but congratulations on getting there.

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