Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion about small business. Ironically, I stood here a year ago—almost to the day—and I made a few predictions of what was to come for small business. It gives me no pleasure, because I know people out there are hurting—business people, small-and-medium-business people, are hurting—to once again stand here with those very predictions which have now come to pass. If you'll indulge me, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, I'll quote myself:

… the Labor-Green-teal government, is now the worst government on record for Australian businesses, having surpassed the 10,757 businesses collapsing under the government of 2011-12.

Well, that record's been broken again. Annual insolvencies have been rising steadily across all sectors since 2022, as ASIC data has shown.

A lot of members here—and I'm not having a go at them—have never been in business. A lot of people come into this chamber and speak about businesses, particularly small and medium businesses. But until you've sat in the seat, until you've run a business, employed people, filled out a BAS at one minute to 12 the night before it's due and then paid the people who work for you and gone home to the wife and said, 'We're a bit light on this week; we'll have to just tighten the belt'—until you've done that, you don't understand how hard it is to run a small business. Whether or not that's a farm—in my case it was three law practices—you're dealing with the everyday issues of running a small business and your cash flow. But then government comes into your life uninvited, with policies created by people who have no understanding of how they affect those little people. Small and medium businesses make up 98 per cent of our economy, and the people in the regions—the rural people, the regional people—quite often do the hard, heavy lifting for those in the cities.

You see policies on power or energy being brought into this place, sometimes by bureaucrats with no understanding and sometimes by well-intentioned members of parliament—I'll give you the example of the Heritage Hotel Motel Dorrigo, which celebrated its 100 years only last week. I went up and I spoke to Peter Feros; the hotel has been in the Feros family since they built it 100 years ago. Peter's now 82. In the last 18 months, his electricity bill has gone up $40,000. For a tiny little town at the top of the Great Dividing Range, looking down over the sea, where do they find that money? Where does Peter Feros have to go, and what does he have to cut to find that money? I'll tell you what he has to cut; he has to cut a staff member.

This is replicated all around Australia, whether it's in hospitality or in retail. What we need is good government intervention—not bad government intervention but policy that works. We just saw a roundtable—I predicted that the booklet was printed before we had the roundtable—and nothing will come out of it. It will have been a talkfest. I say, to this government and those people who are making the policies that are hurting our businesses and forcing them to close down, get out of the way or listen to the people on the ground. Listen to what they want; listen to what they need. Otherwise, in 12 months time, August 2026, I'll be standing here saying the same thing.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to stand up today and talk about our amazing small-business community and the ways that our government is supporting them. Small business is the absolute backbone of our community. Nationally, they employ nearly 40 per cent of our workforce—that is simply huge. In regional areas like the Illawarra, small businesses are also working hard to give back, supporting those who are less fortunate and lending a helping hand where they can. They're putting their heart and soul into our community, giving back wherever they can. There are businesses like Alexander's Bakery Southside. Family owned by Carla and Kaveh, it sells delicious borek, pastry and coffee in Corrimal and in Wollongong. At the end of each day, their staff box up all of the unsold food from the day and donate it to St Vincent de Paul's Coniston Homeless hub. Perfectly good, delicious food that might otherwise be destined for landfill is instead given back to those who are less fortunate. That is just awesome. Another incredible local venture backed by small businesses wanting to give back.

I had such a fun night at the battle of the businesses last year, a great community event put together by local business owners Adrian and Karlie from Tiny Tins skip bins, Orlane from Wollongong Crane Trucks, and Aimee and James from Grechys Boxing and Fitness. This fun fight night raised money for the amazing Illawarra Community Foundation. These guys really do care about our community, and the effort that they have made in raising funds, growing business networks and supporting local people is truly commendable.

The Illawarra Community Foundation is, of course, the wonderful charity organisation at the heart of the i98FM Illawarra Convoy led by the awesome Marty Haynes. The convoy is a magnificent demonstration of the difference businesses can make, with so many participating every single year in the lead truck and motorbike auctions—to give just two examples. Since 2005, the convoy has raised more than $27.6 million thanks to the support of local businesses and our amazing community who back it.

Yet another example of small businesses giving back is the Yours And Owls Festival, a highly popular local music festival by the sea. They run a local bush regeneration program. Yours and Owls have been committed to environmental outcomes since they were established, and it was really great to see them receive recognition last year with one of Wollongong City Council's Rise and Shine awards. The annual bush regeneration initiative helps to clean up our environment while encouraging young people to get involved with the lure of free music tickets. An innovative and impressive way of giving back and teaching love and respect for our environment while also supporting artists and bringing tourism and joy to our coastline. Well done to Adam, Baluun and Ben for their incredible efforts.

These are only a few examples. I could go on and on about the amazing things that our local small businesses are doing in the Illawarra. The Albanese Labor government is doing what we can to back small businesses. Our national small business strategy is the first of its kind to bring governments across Australia together to support our small businesses. Its aim is to help make it easier for small businesses to operate, to innovate and to thrive. Local businesses tell me all the time that they want all levels of government to work together more effectively to provide a seamless and cohesive government environment. That's what our national small business strategy is all about.

Our Future Made in Australia policy—or, as I like to call it, 'a future made in the Illawarra'—is also one of the best ways that we can support local small businesses to grow and to thrive. We are helping small- and medium-sized businesses to compete for and win more government contracts. We are updating the Commonwealth Procurement Rules to significantly increase local businesses' participation, and we are improving AusTender, to help identify Australian businesses on government panels more easily. We've also got our instant asset write-off, our energy efficiency grants, improvements to payment time reports, the Small Business Debt Helpline, the National Productivity Fund—the list goes on.

The last one I want to touch on is really special to me: the Industry Growth Program. I have seen the difference that this $400 million fund can make, powering local start-ups and small businesses to grow, to diversify and to reach new markets. I proudly supported local company Gravitas with $1.5 million under this program to build new warehouses at their Coniston facility, marking the arrival of another high-tech industry in Wollongong and cementing us on the world stage.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for raising this critically important topic. In my electorate of Dawson, small businesses have been doing it tough under the current Labor government. Businesses are not starting up; they are closing down. Travelling across my electorate and talking to my constituents, I have small business owners tell me that they're at a loss to understand why this Labor government has forgotten them. Many are struggling against the tide of rising costs. Many with big dreams can no longer see a way of making their living through their passion. They are overwhelmed by confusing regulation, complex industrial laws and a tax system that does nothing to encourage a new venture. Australians with entrepreneurial spirit are instead choosing the safety of being employed by others.

Dawson is buoyed by having a rich resource service industry. We have a lot of motivated innovators with smarts to start up, run and grow a new venture. There is a lot of success in North Queensland. But the current economic climate is a tough environment in which to start and sustain a business, especially a business that is not directly linked to our mining sector. The fact is that retailers, cafe and restaurant owners, and other small business operators who are trying to make a buck are struggling. They're finding it hard to pay the rent, cover the power bills and pay staff—all while navigating mountains of regulatory paperwork and the risk of unintentionally falling foul of complex workplace laws. If they're lucky, the long hours they work might translate into something left over at the end of the week. But if there's nothing to incentivise these efforts and there are only hurdles in the way, why would anyone want to run a business? And if no-one is running small businesses, there will be fewer jobs available, fewer options for consumers and ultimately slower economic growth.

Over the past few years we've seen a steep rise in business insolvencies. The last financial year was the worst on record. Just think about that for a moment. If the population is growing—and it is, at a rapid rate of knots—and there are fewer businesses offering goods and services, what does that look like for an Australian future, particularly for the future of regional communities like my electorate of Dawson? What does it mean for our national economic prosperity? So I ask: why has this Labor government turned its back on small business, and why doesn't this government place greater emphasis on stimulating small business opportunities? Could it be that the Labor government is only interested in big business that they can unionise—a nice little cash cow there!—or people that are working for the government?

The fact is, Labor simply doesn't care about small business. Their leaders have never worked in small business and don't understand small business. Both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are career politicians. They have no idea what small-business owners go through just to keep the doors open. Last week they led a three-day economic talkfest—plenty of headlines, plenty of photo opps. But what was the result for small business? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. There was nothing in it for small business. When the Treasurer announced the outcomes of the forum, not once was small business even mentioned—not once. If this government can't even acknowledge what small business brings to the table, I'm deeply concerned at the path that the country is on. I absolutely stand with small-business owners right across Australia, from farmers and fishermen to the mum-and-dad freight companies transporting local goods, to small manufacturers striving to make Aussie-made products, to transport operators and many retailers in every corner of the country. I stand with you, and so do my colleagues on this side of the House, because we get it. Those of us on this side understand that without small business this country suffers. Small business needs lower power prices, lower taxes, less government interference and, above all, a government that understands them and backs them.

We need to create an environment that stimulates small-business growth. We need to make it easier and more attractive for Australians to open their own ventures. We must make changes so that business has every opportunity to succeed, so that Aussies are buying Australian goods and services, so that passion and hard work can be rewarded, not punished. Backing small business means backing the Australian economy. (Time expired)

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was delighted in the last sitting to listen to the speeches of our new members of federal parliament and even more delighted to see how much experience in small business there has been. It is an incredibly impressive new group, some young and some not so young but all equally passionate to see small business thrive in our nation.

Personally, I was absolutely delighted to work with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, or COSBOA, as I have over many years, promoting local businesses in their excellent campaigns and, in the last couple of weeks, organising a small-business roundtable in Darwin, where the Minister for Small Business, Anne Aly, and I met with owners and representatives of about 25 small businesses in my electorate. I want to use this opportunity to thank Catherine Donnan and Nicole Walsh from COSBOA for all of their work.

I'm a member of and a regular attendee of events organised by Territory Proud, which is an organisation that is championing Territory owned and operated small businesses. I also recently attended a fantastic event held by the Palmerston Regional Business Association, the PRBA, at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club, where I was able to set out to that grouping our fantastic policies when it comes to not only economic development in the country more generally but also mitigating some of the worst effects of some of the global winds that our nation, above all others, is weathering the best.

We ran the roundtable with local small businesses, and some of the key issues that came up—some of them won't be surprising, given that it was in Darwin—included the cost of freight and the associated logistics infrastructure, which then impact on costs to build; the concentration of industries and then the loss of domestic suppliers as a result of that concentration; and, of course, the rising cost of insurance, which is a real issue for all businesses across our nation, particularly for small businesses.

Our government understands that many small businesses are under the pump due to interest rates, which we've been able to put downward pressure on with interest rate cuts, due to the conditions in the economic environment. We have played some role with the Australian people and with Australian industry, but there have been those cost-of-living pressures for everyday Australians and, of course, that global economic uncertainty has continued and weighed heavily on our economy.

Australian small businesses are obviously, as all honourable members understand and have articulated, absolutely vital to our nation's prosperity, contributing about $590 billion with a 'b' to our economy and employing over 5.4 million Australians. There are 2.62 million small businesses contributing almost $600 billion to the Australian economy, and the 5.16 million people employed by small businesses equate to almost 40 per cent of the workforce.

Our government, of course, is a hundred per cent committed to improving the operating environment in which these small and medium-sized businesses can invest and innovate and generate even more new jobs that will benefit Australians and Australian communities. We are easing the pressure, particularly on small businesses in the Northern Territory, with energy rebates, energy efficiency grants and the extension of the government's $20,000 instant asset write-off. We are delivering tax cuts for 1.5 million sole traders and supporting our hospitality sector and alcohol producers by pausing indexation on the draught beer excise. I'm sure that's something that the honourable member opposite would appreciate is good for hospitality. One thing that I worked hard to achieve is the DAMA, the designated area migration agreement, for the Northern Territory. We established, with the NT government, the best one in the country, and I'm proud of it. (Time expired)

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13:34 to 16:00