Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've just had a very interesting meeting with Wes Lambert. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association Limited, and he painted a dire picture of where the hospitality sector is. Indeed, 11,000 hospitality businesses have collapsed in the past 12 months. As Mr Lambert just said, 'They've shut their doors and they won't reopen.' Eighty per cent of those are in metropolitan areas; 20 per cent regional. There are a number of factors as to why these hospitality businesses are going belly up, but it's on Labor's watch. Small business is doing it so very tough at the moment.

According to this latest report, Financial year 26 policy priorities: supporting Australia's restaurant and cafe future, published by the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association or ARCA, 3.8 per cent is the average restaurant profit margin. That is meagre. So you can see the thin margins under which these restaurants are operating. The average cafe profit margin is 3.3 per cent. You can charge only so much for a cappuccino. You can charge only so much for a coffee. The power prices for these businesses are just going up and up and up. We can hear the climate change minister in question time going on all he likes about power prices falling—he isn't living in the real world. He's certainly not getting out and talking to the likes of Mr Lambert. He's probably enjoying his latte—his magic—but he's certainly not speaking to the person who's making it, or to the owner of the business who is employing that barista, because the power prices are going through the roof.

In this report ARCA is talking about staff shortages. There is a total of 48,217 staff shortages, everything from chefs to cafe managers, wait staff, baristas, bar tenders, hosts and hostesses. It is a dire situation. They suggest that the government fund a nationally available, fully subsidised hospitality job-ready short-course program covering RSA, food safety, barista, bartender and knife skills—not a bad idea. The government talks a lot about—and talks up—its HECS relief that it has put in through the parliament this week. It talks up free TAFE—there's no such thing as free TAFE, it's actually not happening. Labor can talk it up as much as they like. They can pretend there's free TAFE, but there's not. There are a lot of asterisks with 'see the clause beneath' here. I think the government would do well to listen to and meet Mr Lambert—and I know a couple of ministers have—and, more importantly, get out to their local restaurants, get out to their local cafes, meet the people there and ask them about energy prices, because they're going through the roof and it's on Labor's watch.

It's not only that—today we've had a report in the Daily Telegraph about construction insolvencies per financial year. Again, this is grim reading. In 2014-15, construction insolvencies were 611. I'll just go forward to 2019-20, which had 498. What is it today? In 2024-25—wait for this—it's 1,567 construction firms going to the wall. The trouble is, they're not building walls—they've hit the wall! It's a brick wall and it's causing such pain. Again, we come back to the situation where Labor is talking up its HECS debt relief. What about the tradies? What about the bricklayers? What about the sparkies? What about those people who are building houses?

Labor wants to build 1.2 million homes—good luck with that! We heard in question time yesterday the figure of homes that Labor are suggesting they've already built. No; Labor hasn't built a single house. It's the bricklayers, the sparkies and the tradies who are building the homes. The number of homes quoted yesterday is in no way, shape or form in line with what is occurring in real time. Labor needs to get back to its real values—that is, helping the workers in the building and construction sector and in the hospitality industry.

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