Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I too would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on gaining the high office of Speaker. This is also my first opportunity to speak freely in this new parliamentary term and my first chance to note for the record the views that stem from my constituents within Hindmarsh and to speak about those who take a chance in life with the aim of better caring for themselves and their family.

I am speaking about the many people who take a risk in developing or buying into a small to medium business—the people who are up to the challenge of being their own investor, boss and, in many cases, primary employee. I am also talking about the family enterprises—be they the corner shop, the trades, contractors, hairdressers, bakeries, food processors, mechanics, component producers, artists or tourist operators—where mums and dads work together on the product, the marketing and the accounting, and usually out of a very small business premises that may even be the family home.

Businesspeople such as these come from all walks of life and, naturally, engage in an almost infinite variety of enterprises. Their spirit of self-confidence and hard work is to be encouraged—not just in sentimental terms from afar but also, where possible, with effective assistance. This Labor government believes this wholeheartedly. Some used to say that one of the goals of the Labor Party was the transformation of members of the working class into that which owned their own means of production and a level of economic independence.

Businesses around the country, whether they are starting from the ground up or whether they are established, receive assistance towards all of these ends through community organisations run by the very people of the business sector whom others may wish to learn from and possibly emulate. These are business enterprise centres, and they provide terrific services to budding and expanding businesspeople. At no cost or minimal cost and with full confidentiality, they provide independent advice on starting, maintaining or expanding a business, on import replacement or on developing export markets. There are two business enterprise centres within my electorate of Hindmarsh and both of them do an exceptionally good job. One of them is in the inner west of Adelaide and one is in the inner south.

Successes in such ventures mean a secure income for the businesspeople themselves, their contractors and their employees and, of course, it also means a more dynamic and affluent community in general. I visited the two business enterprise centres that service the area of Hindmarsh as one of my first duties after being elected to parliament in late 2004. I visited with then shadow minister Tony Burke, who was keen, to say the least, to see what was happening on the ground in Adelaide’s western suburbs. We visited both the Inner Southern Business Enterprise Centre, which is located in Morphettville, and the Inner West Business Enterprise Centre, which was then located in the inner western suburb of Mile End.

Such centres do warrant Commonwealth support. Too many times we have heard of smart technological and business ideas leaving local areas for other states. Too many times we have heard about products that could have been developed in Australia being developed overseas. Many reasons exist for such losses, but this Labor government is committed to assisting small businesses to succeed where possible. Labor is committed to providing the backing to enable people who know about small to medium business to provide advice and help to those who are in unfamiliar territory. Businesses tell me and my colleagues that they want a one-stop shop for advice to consolidate and grow their businesses—and this Labor government is committed to assisting this to continue into the future.

Two such commitments were made toward the Hindmarsh area in the lead-up to the 2007 federal election. The current Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy, Minister Emerson, committed $300,000 of annual federal funding to both the Inner Southern Business Enterprise Centre in Morphettville and the Inner West Business Enterprise Centre in the western suburbs.