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

Don't let hubris take you over, Member for Kooyong! We had Tim Fischer, who was a former deputy prime minister. He loved small business, let me tell you. Tim Fischer understood, appreciated and valued small business, and whomever the Nationals put up will be of the same ilk as far as backing small business is concerned. National Party members always back small business—and you know why? Because most of us have run one.

I ran my own small business for eight years and it was hard work; it was absolutely hard yakka running a small business. Quite often you work late, you always start work early and often you take home less pay than the workers you employ. But there's nothing more rewarding than knowing you are employing someone. There's no better feeling than knowing not only you are directly employing someone but also, through your perspiration and endeavours, you're often employing somebody indirectly. In my case, it was printing firms. I well remember that Active Print put out a new four-colour press and hired more people to churn through the work we were providing. We were just a small business, with just three directors, and we were proud of those years.

To every small-business person out there, I say—and I think I speak on behalf of the parliament—a very big thankyou. They are doing the hard yards, and they're not getting the support they need. That's why so many businesses, sadly, are going to the wall as we speak, and that is such a shame. They deserve better policy because they are helping to grow the food. They are helping to grow the fibre. They are helping in so many areas of endeavour. Whether they're farmers—the world's best environmentalists—whether they're on the high streets or the main streets of country towns right across Australia, whether they're in the central business districts of our capital cities, we owe them a debt of gratitude. What we don't owe them is debt—and that's all they're getting from this Labor government.

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