Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise and speak on the motion from the shadow minister for small business. As for so many in our community, small business plays a key role in Casey. I'm proud to represent the electorate that has the highest number of trades as a percentage of workforce, and many of those are small businesses, running their own business, working hard every day. Small businesses is at the core of community. I am fortunate to visit many sporting grounds, footy clubs and cricket clubs in my electorate, and all around the boundary you see those small businesses giving back to sporting clubs and the community infrastructure in Casey. That is why it is so important that we have strong and growing small businesses.

A strong small business is a family business. It's good for the individual, it's good for the family, it's great for the community and it's great for our nation. Unfortunately, in this cost-of-business crisis that small business is under, with every cost going up, small businesses have been completely abandoned by the Albanese Labor government. We now have a new Minister for Small Business, and it's no wonder that there's a new one coming through, because in the last term the Minister for Small Business was completely absent. I asked the Parliamentary Library to do a bit of research to see how many bills were introduced to support and help small business in the last term—and there was one: one bill in three years from this government, from the Minister for Small Business, to support small business. They were completely abandoned by the Albanese Labor government.

An honourable member: What was it called?

I've just been asked what it was called. It was called the Payment Times Reporting Amendment Bill 2024. It was actually a good bill. It was a good bill to make sure that big businesses were paying small businesses. And I'm not arguing with the quality of one bill; I'm arguing with the quantity: one bill for a whole term. We know those opposite are a little bit sensitive about that.

We also know they have laid on regulation after regulation. The Prime Minister has finally woken up to it. The Treasurer is so devoid of economic ideas that he relies on two journalists from the United States for his inspiration, so it's all about deregulation now from this government. The Prime Minister has said, 'It's about government doing less, clearing away unnecessary or outdated regulation.' This is the new modus operandi now: that abundance is what we're all reading on the government side. The problem with that is that the government's rhetoric does not align with its actions. In the last term, this government added 5,000 new regulations: 153 new regulations in employment and workplace relations; 199 in agriculture; and 82 in industry, science and resources. They talk about deregulation, but they've made it harder and harder for small business.

They said, when they brought in all these new regulations around industrial relations, that they would have an independent review, that they would get an independent body of experts to look at the regulation. But we now know, through FOIs, that it was not independent. The workplace relations minister appointed the government's own people to mark their own homework—ignored the departmental advice. In a Senate hearing in February a workplace relations department first assistant secretary, Jody Anderson, said, 'They were chosen by the minister.' So, despite wanting to have an independent review of their IR laws, the government got their own people to mark their own homework. It's because they know—they've finally woken up—that the more regulation you add the more cost you add to business. And small business is not in a good place to manage that paperwork and regulation. Big businesses have huge departments that thrive on extra regulation. It makes it a lot harder for a small business to compete if you add regulation on. This government knows that. That is why they have their friends marking their own homework.

I'm proud to have spent 15 years working in and with small businesses. I've seen the innovation. I've seen the growth. I've seen the jobs that are created by small businesses in Casey. I'll make sure I take every opportunity in this House to hold the government to account for their failures when it comes to supporting small business. I will make sure we as a coalition put forward positive policies to make sure we can solve the challenges that small businesses face. They just want us to get out of the way and let them keep more of their own— (Time expired)

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