Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to assist Australia's small businesses to grow and to create more jobs, given the challenges facing the Australian economy?

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I take the opportunity to congratulate you on your new role, and I also want to thank the member for Wills, who knows that small businesses are a critical part of his local community and have a large impact on the economy there.

Small businesses, of course, are the engine room of the nation's economy. They're at the centre of local communities, and they employ millions of Australians. We all know what a difficult few years small businesses have had in this country with the global pandemic. Of course, there have been floods and there have been bushfires, and we know that it's had a significant impact on them, but they have been incredibly resilient.

Despite the resilience, though, small businesses are facing challenges. We heard from the Treasurer earlier today about what some of those challenges are. Small businesses know that we inherited $1 trillion of debt. They know that rising inflation is increasing the cost of their supplies. They know that interest rates are increasing. They know that electricity prices are increasing—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moncrieff and the member for Lindsay will cease interjecting.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

even though those on the other side didn't have the guts to tell small businesses prior to the election, did they? And, of course, there are significant workforce shortages. We also know that those over there didn't do anything about that for nine years other than cut skills and training.

We on this side of the House understand how important small business is to the economy, which is why we've moved so quickly to actually support small businesses. We want to invest taxpayer money where it really matters. Yesterday we introduced Jobs and Skills Australia legislation, because we want to reinvest in skills in Australia. We want to make sure that local small businesses have the workers with the skills they need to be able to expand. We want to rebuild TAFE. With our cheaper child care, we want to make it easier for parents to do additional hours in those small businesses.

It's also why we've recently changed the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. We want to ensure that small businesses have a better pathway to engage and do business with government. Indeed, we're making it a requirement that 20 per cent of Commonwealth procurement must come from small businesses. Of $70 billion a year in Commonwealth contracts, 20 per cent will go to small businesses. This will provide certainty to small businesses. It will mean that they can invest in their communities and in their businesses and that they can grow and create more jobs in local businesses.

We have already announced that we're going to be working hard, as noted by the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, to make sure that we legislate against unfair contract terms for small businesses. We want to make sure that they can negotiate with larger businesses. The former government over there said that they would do it, but nine long years they were there and they didn't get around to it. But this side of the House is going to act, and act quickly, to support small businesses, because we've got their back. We want to support them so they can grow in local communities right across the country and create jobs.