Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a bit unusual to hear the Liberal Party talking about small business these days. They've taken a big break from talking about things like small business. They're very focused on culture wars, on which flags they'll stand in front of and on welcomes to country. Those were the dominant topics of the WA Liberal Party conference on the weekend—which culture war they can wage to undermine their leader. That's been the Liberal Party's focus this weekend. They're not talking about small businesses but what sort of culture war they can wage on behalf of the good backbench of the Liberal Party.

The other thing that the Liberal Party are absolutely focused on, which affects businesses, is their obsession with net zero. They are completely and utterly obsessed with scrapping net zero. The Liberal Party and the National Party, it seems, aren't willing to listen to businesses and aren't willing to listen to the economic truth of the fact that there is huge opportunity in transitioning towards renewables and transitioning towards net zero. Instead, the Liberal Party are only interested in transitioning their leaders around and around, like some sort of revolving door. That appears to be their main interest.

But we on this side of the House actually support the small businesses of Australia. We support the small businesses who make our communities wonderful. In my electorate of Macnamara, we have some of the finest small businesses in our country. You only have to walk through the bustling south Melbourne market to experience the hardworking and amazing culture and flavours of Australia. We have small-business owners who provide such an amazing experience for locals and for people who come and visit our community, walking down all of the high streets, and the hospitality and restaurants of the inner south of Melbourne make it such a wonderful place to go.

But they are not the only small businesses that we have. We have huge numbers of small and medium businesses that work in manufacturing and in a whole range of different supply chains. We are so proud of all of the businesses, including some of the high-tech small businesses that I have that are working on engineering projects as well as defence projects and some of the digital and creative arts projects. Some of the best postproduction small businesses in the world are in my electorate. We support each and every one of them.

It's why we work to make sure that the payment systems happen faster. It's why we work to make sure that big businesses are actually paying small businesses—because we know that cash flow can often be such a big issue. It's why we extended the instant asset write-off program, a great Labor program that continues right through from the Rudd era.

And it is of course why we have been giving businesses energy grants to try and improve their energy efficiency. I went to a number of the businesses in my electorate that got grants of up to $25,000 to improve their energy efficiency, saving them literally thousands of dollars in the ongoing costs of running their businesses—like Rococo in St Kilda, who got new fridges and a few other things. So many other businesses were able to improve the way in which they were functioning and reduce their costs, thanks to the energy efficiency grants.

But one of the big things that we have done to try and assist the small businesses of Australia is bring down inflation. The inflation we inherited from those opposite, when they were finally kicked out of government, had a six in front of it, and it's now back down in the target ranges of the Reserve Bank. What we know is that, as a result of inflation coming down, the Reserve Bank adjusts monetary policy to ensure there are more opportunities for growth and disposable income in the economy, which benefits small businesses—because we know that high inflation hurts lower and middle-income owners the hardest. It means there is less disposable income for families, and it means less money is going into the small businesses of Australia. That's why we work so hard to try to be responsible but also to support people to get through those difficult economic times.

There was one common thing that happened along the way. The Liberal Party opposed each and every measure that we put in to try to ease the cost of living and the cost of doing business and to try to give energy bill relief to businesses. They opposed that. They even opposed capping the price of coal and gas in the last term of parliament—something that we knew would be critical for small businesses and medium businesses across the country. Those opposite, in their absolute obsession with saying no, opposed each and every measure.

We won't be taking lectures from the Liberal Party, who now, all of a sudden, pretend to care about small business, when they spend all their free time waging culture wars and wars against each other and wars against the leaders of both the Nationals and the Liberal Party. We on this side of the House will continue with sound economic management, by bringing down inflation, supporting businesses and reducing the cost of doing business so that our amazing businesses can be successful in Australia.

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