Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, there are 14,000 small business operators in my electorate that provide most of the 65,000 jobs. These employers take responsibility for their employees and therefore their families every day of their working life. They are farmers, suppliers, tool repairers, bakers and tradies. Prime Minister, how important are they to the nation's wellbeing, especially in my electorate of McMillan?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The small business men and women of McMillan, as the honourable member knows, are providing the drive, the energy, the jobs, the industry of his electorate and, indeed, right across the Australia—the whole country. We do not sing the praises of small businesspeople enough. We can never sing their praises enough. Peter Allen used to sing of the Tenterfield Saddler. We should sing of the 'Pakenham haberdasher', who, of course, is the member for McMillan in his former evocation as Pakenham's nattiest draper and haberdasher. 'Broadbent's men's land' was the place any smartly dressed gentleman in that electorate would find their way and make sure they were properly turned out!

Right through our ranks we have small business men and women. It is in the DNA of the Liberal Party. It is a testament to the breadth and depth of the real world experience of our parties—the Liberal and National parties—that we have so many people who have worked in small business. Some of those businesses have become big businesses. But the fact of the matter is that we understand that that is where the beating heart of our economy lies and that is why we constantly support it. There are 1.3 million small businesses, of which 62 per cent involve people who are self-employed. Their contribution to employment is in fact the highest in the agriculture sector: 83 per cent of all jobs in agriculture are in small businesses. Small businesses account for more than half of all of the jobs in the construction sector and almost half of the jobs in business services. Women account for 37 per cent of all business operators, including small business. They account for about a third of all small business operators in terms of sole traders, with up to 20 employees. Women business owners are increasing at a faster rate than their male counterparts. It goes in line with the growing female participation in the workforce.

We are constantly focused on supporting the small business sector. In the last budget: $3.3 billion of tax cuts for small businesses; $1.8 billion in accelerated depreciation measures. Think of what the free trade agreements have done for small business. In the honourable member's electorate, Burra Foods in Korumburra, in the heart of South Gippsland, is a dairy ingredient processor which is going to see its sales to China grow to $60 million in 2017. That could not have happened without the commitment of our government to free trade and to small business prospering, driving jobs and driving economic growth right across the nation.