Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday's flippant remark by Labor's Minister for Small Business, Nick Sherry, that bookstores will soon 'cease to exist' was, for many small business owners, the last straw. This government's disdain for small bookstore owners is simply a metaphor for their abandonment of the small business sector as a whole. Small business matters. With nearly two million small businesses Australia wide, representing 96 per cent of all businesses, small business employs more than five million people.

In Kooyong we have nearly 18,000 small businesses, from the bustling shopping strips in Glenferrie and Burke roads to the small family enterprises run from home. It is the engine room of our local economy. If you hurt small business, you hurt every Kooyong family. That is why the Gillard government's policies towards small business are causing such concern.

In this year's budget, the abolition of the entrepreneurs tax offset will affect up to 400,000 small businesses who will lose up to $2,500. It is a severe punishment for self-employed operations reporting incomes of less than $50,000 a year and, to make matters worse, the sector's peak body, the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, COSBOA, said there was no consultation prior to the announcement.

The introduction of a requirement on businesses in the building and construction industry to report to the ATO every payment made to contractors is another punitive measure that has caused an outcry. It will create a significant administrative burden on small business and is clearly a payback to the union movement, who are looking to government for help in reversing their declining membership.

Small business operators who drive more than 25,000 kilometres per year are also facing higher FBT charges on their vehicles—another impost on doing business. With the carbon tax expected to lift gas and electricity prices, there will be no compensation for small business. All these changes are coming at a time when small business is doing it tough and consumer confidence is on the wane. The Telstra Business/COSBOA 2011 Back to Business survey found that more than one-third of small businesses face cash flow problems, only one in five believe that economic conditions are better today than they were a year ago, and nearly half are concerned by higher interest rates.

You do not have to take my word for it that Labor is bad for small business. Just ask COSBOA or the Independent Contractors Australia who said, 'It’s becoming harder not to reach the conclusion that the Gillard government really hates small business people.' The fact that the Rudd-Gillard governments have seen 300,000 jobs lost from small business is a sign that enough is enough. The Australian public want a minister who is ready to man the barricades in their defence, not one who is quick to write the epitaph of their demise. The only way to reverse this devastating trend for small business in Australia is to remove this government from office.