Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the recent Sensis survey of 1,800 small businesses which shows that the number of small businesses that believe the government’s policies support them has plummeted from 46 per cent to only 10 per cent. Prime Minister, which of the government’s anti-small-business policies will be changed to reverse this dramatic decline in small business confidence in the government?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you were out there in the business community and had copped 10 successive interest rate rises in a row courtesy of the fiscal indiscipline of those opposite, it would have an effect on your confidence as well. It does not just affect people on mortgages, important as that—

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order of relevance. The question was very—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No. The member for Moncrieff will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is starting his reply. I will listen to it carefully, but the Prime Minister has just started.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. Firstly, there is an impact on confidence after 10 interest rate rises in a row; and, secondly, when this government assumed office, inflation was running at a 16-year high, and that has an effect on confidence as well. The flow-through effect of that in terms of activity and unemployment, unless you actually turn things around, is there for all to see. That is why this government is committed to undertaking a policy based on fiscal discipline, fiscal rectitude and a $22 billion surplus, in contrast to those opposite, who are in the process of conducting a $22 billion raid.

Beyond that, the government can also embark upon a serious program of business deregulation. I draw the attention of honourable members to the work currently underway by the minister for small business through the Council of Australian Governments looking at key critical questions of the compatibility of business regulation right across Australia. For 12 years in office, those opposite had ample opportunity through the Council of Australian Governments to do something cooperative with the states on the business deregulation agenda. If you are a small business trying to become a medium-sized business and operating in one, two or three states, one of the huge barriers to entry is practical questions like the conflicting arrangements for the registration of business names and other conflicting business regulatory arrangements. This government has actually taken this challenge seriously. Currently—before the relevant working group of COAG—we are examining 27 separate items of legislation and regulation which impact right across the business community. That is a practical course of action which we have embarked upon in our first six months in office. After 12 years in office, they had done zip.