Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to recognise every single person in my community who is doing it tough. They're feeling the pressure when they're at the petrol pump, when they turn on their lights, when they're cooking dinner for their families and when they're paying their mortgages. I particularly know this because so many small businesses—the cafe owners, the small manufacturers—have come to tell me that they are concerned about the threat of rolling down the shutters as the unions roll into town and as industrial relations laws get rammed through this parliament.

When cafe owners are struggling to find workers, when trade is slowing because of the cost of living, when people can't afford to buy their lunches and pay for their dinners, and when buying the daily coffee is threatened, we have a problem. Manufacturers in my electorate of Lindsay, those Aussie manufacturers that we want to back and get behind, are paying 300 per cent more on their energy bills, and they're telling me that they're going to be out of business by Christmas.

Opposition members: Shame!

It is a shame. It is shameful that Aussie manufacturers are facing these costs. It will mean that 200 workers in one of my local manufacturers in Lindsay will potentially be out of a job next year. The government need to be listening, because my manufacturers and my small businesses don't think you are.