Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for raising this critically important topic. In my electorate of Dawson, small businesses have been doing it tough under the current Labor government. Businesses are not starting up; they are closing down. Travelling across my electorate and talking to my constituents, I have small business owners tell me that they're at a loss to understand why this Labor government has forgotten them. Many are struggling against the tide of rising costs. Many with big dreams can no longer see a way of making their living through their passion. They are overwhelmed by confusing regulation, complex industrial laws and a tax system that does nothing to encourage a new venture. Australians with entrepreneurial spirit are instead choosing the safety of being employed by others.

Dawson is buoyed by having a rich resource service industry. We have a lot of motivated innovators with smarts to start up, run and grow a new venture. There is a lot of success in North Queensland. But the current economic climate is a tough environment in which to start and sustain a business, especially a business that is not directly linked to our mining sector. The fact is that retailers, cafe and restaurant owners, and other small business operators who are trying to make a buck are struggling. They're finding it hard to pay the rent, cover the power bills and pay staff—all while navigating mountains of regulatory paperwork and the risk of unintentionally falling foul of complex workplace laws. If they're lucky, the long hours they work might translate into something left over at the end of the week. But if there's nothing to incentivise these efforts and there are only hurdles in the way, why would anyone want to run a business? And if no-one is running small businesses, there will be fewer jobs available, fewer options for consumers and ultimately slower economic growth.

Over the past few years we've seen a steep rise in business insolvencies. The last financial year was the worst on record. Just think about that for a moment. If the population is growing—and it is, at a rapid rate of knots—and there are fewer businesses offering goods and services, what does that look like for an Australian future, particularly for the future of regional communities like my electorate of Dawson? What does it mean for our national economic prosperity? So I ask: why has this Labor government turned its back on small business, and why doesn't this government place greater emphasis on stimulating small business opportunities? Could it be that the Labor government is only interested in big business that they can unionise—a nice little cash cow there!—or people that are working for the government?

The fact is, Labor simply doesn't care about small business. Their leaders have never worked in small business and don't understand small business. Both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are career politicians. They have no idea what small-business owners go through just to keep the doors open. Last week they led a three-day economic talkfest—plenty of headlines, plenty of photo opps. But what was the result for small business? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. There was nothing in it for small business. When the Treasurer announced the outcomes of the forum, not once was small business even mentioned—not once. If this government can't even acknowledge what small business brings to the table, I'm deeply concerned at the path that the country is on. I absolutely stand with small-business owners right across Australia, from farmers and fishermen to the mum-and-dad freight companies transporting local goods, to small manufacturers striving to make Aussie-made products, to transport operators and many retailers in every corner of the country. I stand with you, and so do my colleagues on this side of the House, because we get it. Those of us on this side understand that without small business this country suffers. Small business needs lower power prices, lower taxes, less government interference and, above all, a government that understands them and backs them.

We need to create an environment that stimulates small-business growth. We need to make it easier and more attractive for Australians to open their own ventures. We must make changes so that business has every opportunity to succeed, so that Aussies are buying Australian goods and services, so that passion and hard work can be rewarded, not punished. Backing small business means backing the Australian economy. (Time expired)

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