Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the critical issue of competition policy. Twenty years ago, there was the Hilmer review, which looked at competition and drove many of the reforms that successive governments have delivered to Australia. As an election commitment, the Abbott government has undertaken now to have the Harper review. At the outset, I indicate that I am a free trader. I believe in less regulation. I believe in having a vibrant economy and a vibrant business community for big, medium and small business, not one at the exclusion of others. I am, however, for diversification. I am also very strongly of the belief that we get the best diversification when people with an entrepreneurial spirit get a start, people who have ideas and they take those ideas to market through innovation.

The reality is that in a market which is dominated only by a few, it is very hard for people who have great ideas to get a start. We all know, and I guess I am learning all the time, about how the internet and digitisation are in fact helping some of those people get to market. For that I am very grateful, and I encourage many of our local businesses to take up those opportunities. But I want to take the debate away from the stale economics, the purist economics. I have sat with the panel of the Harper review and I respect each of those individuals greatly. However, today I want to take this chamber and my colleagues on both sides of this House down to another place—that is, the reality of how people build relationships, believe in each other and, in doing so, create opportunities, jobs and wealth in the community. I believe that the old adage of a fair go and having a go are pivotal to the Australia that I want to see the next generation inherit.

As we step forward, and in March we will get the final report from the Harper review, there will be a lot of questions for this chamber to discuss, trawl over and in some cases implement. What I am going to bring to this chamber today is a request that every member of this place and the other place look to the sort of Australia that we want to leave to the next generation when it comes to innovation, entrepreneurship and having a go—the small man who gets a start and makes it big. If we only take the purist view of economics about open market access and deregulation then we may miss some of the opportunities that I am about to share with you today.

I am going to bring to the attention of the House three living examples of what can be lost if only big players remain in the market place. The first I draw your attention to is a company based on the Sunshine Coast at Warana in Caloundra, and, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, is now in Perth, your home town. It is a company called Maslen Australia. They are an advanced refrigeration technology company and their motto is 'innovation in refrigeration'. This is a company that had to use partner to partner, business to business, human being to human being contacts in order to get a start in the markets that they are now in. They went to Roz White from White's IGA and said, 'We have a solution for you.' Ask yourself: if they had gone to the wonderful departments in Woolworths, Coles or Aldi and said, 'We have an idea for you,' would that be for someone else? But when they are able to deal one entrepreneur to another, Roz White and her husband were able to take a gamble, if you like, and in doing so they have delivered some extraordinary outcomes.

Here we are talking about global greenhouse gas emissions. Let me tell you that the people of Perth are now going to be able to enjoy what the people of Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast have. They have provided into their IGA superstore an energy efficiency which is half the power that the previous refrigeration units were using, saving 3,000 kilowatt hours per day. It is an investment that would not have been able to be made if it were not for one entrepreneur talking to another. In the words of the proprietor, John Maslen, today: 'It was only that we were able to showcase our product.' In other words, an IGA was able to give them a start. They have now been able to expand to meet further demands. They have gone from 20 staff to 45 nationally. They are running two shifts, and this is only the beginning of their journey. But it started because innovation was able to flourish and because small business was able to work together. If there were only Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, would this have occurred?

Let me take you to a second example: Aussie Smokehouse at Warana. Mr Deputy Speaker, are you aware that the ham that you and the attendants here today are likely to buy at one of the big superstores in the lead-up to Christmas was probably made seven or eight months ago? Yes, I see the eyes light up. Isn't it wonderful, carving that wonderful ham, fresh off the bone? No—it is eight months old. But if you were to buy an Aussie Smokehouse smoked ham, which has recently won the national best smoked ham for Christmas in Australia, it was made somewhere between one and 14 days ago. It is genuinely fresh. Paul Rae works there incredibly long hours. How has he done it? Again, because he got a start with local businesses. He started supplying a small chain and through that has been able to develop his business from just three years ago, when he started this brand with 1,400 hams. This year he will produce 30,000. He could sell another 30,000 into Sydney as well, but at the moment he does not have the capacity. He has to reinvest everything back into it. But, without that small business to small business connection, that innovation would not have seen the light of day. The vision would not have turned into jobs for the Sunshine Coast and we would not be eating fresh hams.

Let me take you to the third example. Keep in mind, what I am here today about is in relation to the review that is before us, the Harper review. I am saying: let us be careful. We want to make sure that we deliver an Australia in the future, for the next generation, that allows the sort of innovation that we are referring to here today to happen and to flourish, not to kill it off.

The next company I take you to is at Maleny. Joseph Zehnder owns this company. It is called Zehnder Gluten Free. Back just over six years ago he was asked by Rob Outridge at IGA whether he could produce a cake and biscuit brand with gluten-free products. Today—and, as I said, I am not against big business—he does not just supply the IGA there at Maleny: he supplies Woolworths around the country. He supplies into Asia and into Europe. What a success story in just six-odd years. But under a pure economics model he would not have got off the ground. The jobs that are now in regional Australia would not have occurred. The innovation would not be there, and the people who need gluten-free products would not have had the ranges that he has. But it started because of a relationship between a wonderful, successful local businessman, Rob Outridge, and Joseph Zehnder, working together to make that happen. The point I make is that you can go to big companies with these ideas, but the first thing they will look for is, 'What's in it for the shareholders?' Generally the equation is, 'This is the price that we need, and can you supply this massive market today?' 'Well, no, actually I can't; I can supply one store today, and maybe five stores in six months time, and grow from there.' That is what you get when you have a 'give it a go' attitude and you have policies that support it.

As we look at trading hours deregulation, at planning laws, at the effects test and at predatory practices through the purest eyes of economics, we sometimes forget the reality that by putting in these policies—and we can point to the academics that can show you the benefits—what may we lose? I say to all of my colleagues on both sides of this chamber: do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. What sort of Australia do we want to leave for the next generation? Let us have competition, let us have less regulation, let us have big business and small business flourish, and let us make sure that the innovation, the entrepreneurialism and the go-getters that have made Australia the country that it is—which has led in medicine, in agriculture and in service delivery—can continue. I can warn this House that, if we allow the current trend of centralisation to occur, we as a nation will be worse for it. That is the challenge before us. We should step up to the blocks, underpin our policies with the values that are important to us all and ensure that small and medium enterprises and innovators flourish into the future.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192(b). The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 17:45