Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

This exposes the underbelly and the motivation of this government. There is a pure contempt for those people who make the effort, strive and back themselves to the point where they create opportunities not just for themselves but for others. The response from the minister—we just heard it in the chamber, and then she defended her comment—was, 'Maybe they were dodgy.' The simple, broad-brush allegations and criticism of small business—the demonisation of small businesses—because of the attitude of this government are why we have seen record insolvencies. Now is the time when those small businesses and those households need Australians to back them. They need this parliament to back them, but the contempt that we have from the minister shows something entirely different. That is why Australians are feeling the very real consequences of inflation and declining standards of living.

Today we heard direct warnings that inflation was going to continue to eat into the wealth of Australian households. People are going to have lower standards of living, less capacity to support their families, less capacity to go and employ others—all under this government. We have had a record of economic vandalism par excellence if you call that a standard under the Albanese government. We've had Labor's economic vandalism, where households are now paying 16 per cent more for food, 18 per cent more for health, 22 per cent more for rents, 39 per cent more for insurance and nearly 40 per cent more for electricity, and every one of those costs—every single one of those price rises—goes to a small business, eats into their profit margins and increases their capacity to find their way to the ATO and ASIC to the point of insolvency.

Why would a government be so proud of shutting down the pathways for Australians? We are in the business of backing small businesses to open their doors, to welcome their customers and to grow the opportunity in the economic base of our country. Any government, state or federal—the Albanese government in particular—that looks at small business as simply an ATM to cover the costs that they face because they are unable to manage their reckless spending will continue to drive small business to the wall. We know that is happening, because the analysis by the Australian Industry Group clearly shows eight in 10 jobs created in this country right now are coming from direct and indirect public expenditure. We have a crisis of collapse of private investment and private jobs, despite what the Prime Minister and the Treasurer say. The problem of inflation that we have in this country comes directly from fiscal recklessness. The Chalmers interest rate rise cycle has, sadly, only just begun. We have had quotes from the retail sector. We have had quotes from so many different people in the small business sector that they know how bad this is going to be and how Australian small businesses and households will pay.

We need them to rein in their spending. People on the other side of the chamber often ask, 'Where are you going to see cuts?' I can tell you where we would cut expenditure: we would cut the cartel kickbacks that go to organised crime and to bikie gangs through the CFMEU and find their way into union coffers and into the coffers of the Australian Labor Party. I make no apology about that, because they are pushing up the cost of a new home for young Australians, they're pushing up construction costs and they're contributing to the problems of inflation. Now is the time that people and Australians are looking to this parliament to stand up and make decisions in the national interest. Now is the time that they're looking at how this parliament is going to back them to prosper and to grow, and instead they are seeing and hearing the sneers of the Minister for Small Business, saying things like, 'If a small business goes out of business, it must be because it is dodgy.' This is a disgrace, and it is nothing short of contempt.

The minister can throw whatever barbs she wants, but I can tell you the small businesses of this country know exactly who is on their side. They know that the Liberal Party has always stood up proudly, backed them in and made sure the laws of this country say: 'Chance your hand. Go for your life. We back you because you back yourselves.' What they don't deserve is a prime minister and a minister for small business who punch down on them and try to deny them their economic opportunity and their pathway for growth. We back small business. They want to hate on them.

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