Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The small and family businesses of Australia are quite literally under siege. We must start by looking at the harsh economic reality that this Labor-Greens government has engineered. Headline inflation hit 3.8 per cent in January, but domestic inflation—the pain generated right here at home—is running even hotter at 4.9 per cent. Make no mistake; this is not just a cost-of-living crisis. This is a cost-of-government crisis, a cost-of-doing-business crisis, with inflation higher here than any other major economy.

Government spending is now at its highest levels outside of a recession in 40 years, and Labor's debt is racing towards a staggering $1 trillion. Every single minute, the Australian government is paying around $50,000 just to service this debt. And if you're in South Australia, where I'm from, we're only second to Victoria, both with big Labor spending governments. If you live in South Australia and you combine the state Labor government debt and the federal Labor government debt, it has now reached over $100,000 per worker and rising. Governments don't pay down your debt. Taxpayers do, your children do, and your grandchildren will. This is money that is adding demand to the economy and keeping relentless pressure on prices. After nearly four years of Labor, the numbers are terrifying. Insurance is up 39 per cent, rent is up 22 per cent, and food is up 16 per cent.

But perhaps the most devastating blow to our small and family businesses is energy. Labor have spent years papering over the crisis they unleashed on our energy system. Now that temporary rebates have expired, the truth is laid bare. Electricity prices have surged 37 per cent in the past year alone.

Last week, I had the privilege to be at a SIMEC mine south of Whyalla. That's the hematite and magnetite mine that feeds Whyalla and the export port. They have a 50-megawatt line servicing that mine, and only a few weeks ago the price in South Australia––the wholesale price, which the energy minister likes to talk about all the time––reached over $20,000 a megawatt hour. That is $1 million an hour just to run that business. They employ people to monitor the weather patterns. In South Australia we're at 82 per cent renewables, and the price fluctuates so much. Prices go from negative $200 to, in this case, plus $20,000.

This is the reality of Labor's energy systems. For the shops, the cafes, the local workforce and the family enterprises, these power bills are a death knell. Insolvencies have exploded since this government took office. Confidence is crushed. Instead of throwing a lifeline, what does this government do? It reaches for the handcuffs. That is exactly what this government is doing to small and family businesses. They are slapping handcuffs on our economic backbone. Through their draconian industrial relations changes, they've replaced flexibility and fairness with confusion and compliance. Our small and family businesses are being forced to work longer hours for less, bogged down by ever-increasing layers of red tape, and nowhere is this red tape felt more tightly than in our regional family businesses.

In the broadacre cropping industry, the final regulatory decision from the APVMA on paraquat and diquat will be handed down in mid-2026, but there is no plan to assist farmers with this transition. If no viable and affordable replacement is available at scale, the impact on farmers will be significant. There needs to be support for growers for the transition away from these chemicals, including support for the inevitable increased costs, yield reductions and additional labour requirements. Not only are farmers competing against government subsidised sectors overseas and fighting the elements but they are also now fighting against their own government just to stay viable.

The sheer volume of compliance regulation is punishing the very entrepreneurship we need to feed this country and grow agricultural exports. Small and family businesses are also suffering from a lack of commonsense support in the way of critical infrastructure. On the Eyre Peninsula, we are home to the Southern Hemisphere's largest fishing fleet and some of Australia's most fertile land, yet business owners still cannot access accurate weather forecasts via Doppler. That is why I've established a petition—and everyone should sign it—to get Doppler radar on the EP.

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