Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak to this motion moved by the member for Goldstein, because it gives us an opportunity to not only talk about the importance of small business but to talk about what we are seeing in government at the highest levels right now. It's important for a number of reasons, and I've been the beneficiary of small business. I grew up in a small-business family, and I understood very much the sacrifices that were involved in that. I saw my parents work very hard. They took on multiple jobs. They always had to make sure that others were paid before them. It's those sacrifices that go to the heart of the Australian character. It's something that as a country we should make sure we support, we encourage and we allow to thrive. It's more than just the profit. It's about giving people agency over their own lives. It's about backing themselves or allowing them to back themselves so that they can take risks and build something that lasts and, in doing so, support the employment of thousands of Australians.

It's that spirit, that pursuit of reward for risk, of resilience with responsibility, that sits at the heart of the small-business community in my electorate of McPherson on the southern Gold Coast. With where we're at as a country, what we've seen over the last couple of days is statistics that are coming out that are shocking. They are quite frankly frightening, with 41,749 collapsing, with 2025 being the worst year for small-business insolvencies since records began. I was in the House of Representatives—I think it was last week—and I sat across from the Minister for Small Business when I heard her attack the shadow minister for small business and say, 'The reason that these businesses have gone insolvent is potentially because they were dodgy. To hear that level of not only distrust but arrogance coming out of the person who's supposed to be standing up for small businesses in this country is unacceptable. This prime minister now holds an unenviable record of being the worst prime minister in Australian history for small-business insolvencies.

I heard the member for Deakin, who I think is a fantastic individual, before say that insolvencies don't necessarily mean the end for small business. This, combined with what the Minister for Small Business has been going on about and combined with the Treasurer and his recent comments about the state of our economy, paint a consistent profile of a government that is ignoring the reality of the situation that they have created, and the reality of that situation is that small businesses across this country, including in my electorate, are hurting. They're struggling. What is the consequence of this? We're actually fostering a new generation that is turning around and saying, 'We don't want to engage in that risk, because we're seeing our parents, we're seeing our families, and we're seeing people around us who have done that, and government has actually punished them.' It's not because of their own doings. I don't believe it's because small businesses are dodgy. I believe it's because we've got a government that is not creating the economic conditions to allow its citizens to thrive, to take risks, to back their judgment and to support growth. It's too expensive. It's not only that it's too expensive; it is overly burdensome in terms of the obligations the government places on small-business owners.

Small businesses are being hit across the spectrum at the moment. If they're not being hit for industrial relations issues, they're being hit with the cost of energy. I spoke to a small business in Robina Town Centre in my electorate not too long ago who had suffered electricity bills of more than $7,000. These are unsustainable figures. We need to make sure that we hold this government to account, because they need to—and somebody needs to—stand up for those individuals who are putting in their all and who are still hitting the brick wall.

The government is treating small businesses like an ATM, and while they're spending faster than the tax base can support, they're thinking, 'If we just tax more, if we regulate more, if we control more, we are actually going to, as a government, be able to deliver some of the services that Australians need.' That is not the solution. That is not how you generate growth in this country and it's not how you generate growth anywhere. For as long as I'm in this place, I will make sure that we hold this government to account, because small businesses expect nothing less and they are not getting what they deserve from an out-of-touch Albanese Labor government.

See this speech in context