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

Absolutely. I agree with the Assistant Treasurer on this. It is theft, and we should do more about it. We should think about the people that work for small businesses. We know that small-business owners work closely with their employees. They're those relationships that are so very close in our society.

Whether it's small-business policy, environment and climate change policy, industrial relations and wages policy, taxation and education, foreign affairs or consumer affairs, Labor believe that fairness must be at the core of policy formulation. That's part of what this bill aims to achieve, and it's why we are very happy to support it. Adequate and good access to finance is important for SMEs around this country. We will do all we can to make that a reality for small businesses far and wide.

I must say the focus on small business in this place today and in the last couple of days is probably a very welcome change for small businesses around the country. It's good that we have agreed on a number of things, but, gee, I really wish we could have agreed yesterday on the increases to the instant asset write-off instead of waiting for the budget last night. Ninety minutes before we probably could have taken some action in this place to help more small businesses around the country.

I want to make one more comment about small businesses. I will then sit down, as the Assistant Treasurer would really like me to. We know that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They employ so very many people. As I said before, they're not limited by their subject matter. We know that in Western Australia the small businesses that feed into the large resource industries on the north-west coast are of critical importance. I speak of many of the industries in Broome, Karratha, Port Hedland and Kununurra, and, of course, Darwin in the Northern Territory. The more effort these resource companies can apply to make sure their supply chains make use of the small businesses up and down that coast—and inland, for that matter—the better it will be for those growing businesses that support what is our largest export industry, iron ore in Western Australia, but also in the LNG export industry.

I know that when I speak to these very large businesses they are entirely supportive of getting small businesses involved. I know there are many challenges to that, with meeting tender requirement and all sorts of requirements for these large businesses. I congratulate the people I have met from those large mining and resource companies that are applying an extra-special effort to make sure that they seek out more of those small businesses and help them gain the skills and capacities to be able to feed into what is a very important export industry for this country. But, of course, for the towns—and they are small towns; very important, historic towns—across the state of Western Australia it is of critical importance that those small businesses and the local chambers of commerce do all they can to engage with those larger industries that will seek to support and include the small businesses as they develop their export markets and their local working conditions and operations. I thank the House.

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