I move:

That this House:

(1) condemns the Government for imposing higher costs on small businesses through the surcharge ban while allowing the Australian Taxation Office to stop accepting credit card payments rather than absorb merchant fees itself;

(2) notes small businesses are already facing near-record insolvencies, business closures and real profits still below where they were at the change of government, making further cost pressures harder to absorb;

(3) recognises that local cafés, community pharmacies, tradies and family-run businesses will be forced to carry costs that larger businesses may be better placed to negotiate or absorb;

(4) calls out the double standard of requiring small businesses to absorb merchant fees while the Government's own tax collector refuses to do the same; and

(5) calls on the Government to back small business, properly assess the cost of new regulation, and support a Small Business Act that requires Canberra to consider the impact of its decisions before imposing further burdens on small and family businesses.

On 1 October, the surcharge ban came into force. From that day, every cafe, every community pharmacy, every tradie and every family business in this country lost the ability to pass on the cost of accepting a card. The fees did not disappear, however; banks still charge them. Government simply decided that the person behind the counter would pay for them instead. On that day, the Australian Taxation Office announced it would stop accepting credit cards altogether. The commissioner said it was just not tenable for the ATO to absorb those costs. So I ask the government a simple question: If it is not tenable for an agency with the full resources of the Commonwealth behind it, how is it tenable for a cafe in Leongatha? How is it tenable for a pharmacy in Wonthaggi? How is it tenable for a sole-trader electrician running his business out of a ute in Drouin?

Eight days later, after a storm of criticism, the Prime Minister made a captain's call to delay the ATO's decision. Small business got no such reprieve—no transactional funding for the newsagent, no backflip for the hairdresser. They were simply told to absorb it. That is the double standard at the heart of this motion. There's one rule for Canberra and another rule for every other small business across this country, and it comes at the worst possible time. More than 14,000 companies entered insolvency in the last financial year. Most of them were small businesses. This month, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry released its annual small-business conditions survey. More than a thousand owners responded. Rising costs are now their single biggest challenge, which was named by 63 per cent of them, and that concern has jumped 15 per cent in a year. Cash flow worries are up 12 per cent. Businesses reporting harm from red tape are up 11 per cent. Half of all owners are doing their own compliance—often late at night around the kitchen table. The chamber's chief executive, Andrew McKellar, said small businesses are right on the brink, with extremely limited capacity to absorb additional costs. He called it a warning to governments right across this country.

The franchise sector is telling a similar story. Franchise Council of Australia's annual survey, which I used to help conduct when I was its CEO, is now in its seventh year and is conducted independently by FRANdata. It covers more than 100 brands and over 12,000 small businesses—cafes, maintenance, retail, fitness, pet services and many more. One in four of those systems is pessimistic about the conditions over the next six months, and that is from a sector that is intrinsically optimistic by nature. When one in four is gloomy, that should ring alarm bells. Eighty-one per cent rate their concern about economic conditions, particularly high interest rates and inflation, as high or very high. This government received those warnings and handed small businesses another cost to absorb. These are not just numbers on a balance sheet. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, COSBOA, has reported that nearly 80 per cent of small-business owners are experiencing high levels of stress and sleepless nights, and close to 40 per cent say it feels more like depression. When government piles on more cost and complexity, it adds to that weight, and that is at the very essence of this motion today.

There is a longer term cost as well. Nearly a third of small-business owners are looking towards retirement, but there is no pipeline of younger Australians ready to buy those businesses. When young people start to see their parents and neighbours working harder for less and facing more risk and red tape, they've got to ask the natural question: is it worth it? I am seriously worried we're about to lose the next generation of young, talented small-business owners right across this country, and that is going to cost us jobs. It's going to cost our communities support and invigoration, and it's going to hurt regional towns in electorates like mine, in Monash. We need to stand up. This government has to do better.