Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much that the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Goldstein moving the following motion immediately:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) during the matter of public importance discussion on 5 February 2026, the Minister for Small Business suggested that the 33,426 small businesses which have closed under the Government did so because "maybe they were dodgy"; and

(b) the Minister for Small Business told the House she would take the opportunity to correct the record about these disgraceful comments but that she is yet to do so; and

(2) therefore, requires the Minister for Small Business to present a formal apology in the House, apologising to the thousands of small business owners and their staff whom she slandered, before the House rises today.

We know very well we are all sitting here during the matter of public importance last week, when the Minister for Small Business, in response to talking about the 40,000 small businesses that have gone insolvent under this government, said, 'Maybe they were dodgy.' Never has there been a more contemptuous response from the Minister for Small Business—the person whose job it is in this parliament to advocate for their interests—to slur and denigrate them and the hard work of Australians who are standing up and fighting for the future of not just themselves, their families, their communities but the millions of people who work for small business all across this country.

We are at a crossroads as a country. We have a private employment crisis in Australia right now. The government is responsible for eight in 10 jobs either being created directly or indirectly because we are seeing such a crisis in confidence in private investment and private employment. What we have now, when those businesses are trying to get ahead, when they're drowning under the problems and the pressure of inflation, is nothing but contempt from the Albanese government. To say to people who have saved and sacrificed to get themselves into a position to support themselves—who have done the hard work and are making sure they can employ millions of Australians—'maybe they're dodgy' shows a shocking level of contempt from this government and this minister in response to the importance of small business.

The crisis small business in this country is facing right now directly correlates to the problems of inflation. We just heard the Treasurer throughout the entirety of question time continuously saying that there was no correlation between private demand and government expenditure. We heard from the minister and the Treasurer dismissing the problems of inflation and the impact they are having on the small businesses, family businesses, sole traders and self-employed. But the Reserve Bank Governor last Friday, in answer to the question from the member for Cook—and congratulations to him on asking incisive questions in the House of Representatives economics committee—very clearly drew the correlation between public expenditure, inflation and how that is putting upward pressure on interest rates.

This is particularly important because we have so many small businesses that borrow to manage their challenges of liquidity. We have so many small businesses that borrow to raise the capital they need to invest in their own future and to be able to buy the assets they need. And, of course, we know right now that that future is being compromised while the Treasurer floats out options of getting rid of the capital gains discount, as a consequence compromising future investment in this country.

But, even worse than that, so many of those small businesses, because they have to back themselves with money that they borrow from the security they put in their own private home, risk their own future to give a better future to others, often have to go to non-bank lenders and end up paying a higher interest rate than the standard retail rate that so many Australian households pay. So, when interest rates go up and inflation goes up, small business is hit multiple times over. They are also facing a cost-of-business crisis because all those costs that are increasing as a consequence of inflation are going through small businesses.

Large businesses and big corporates can shed those costs across millions of units that are moved. Small businesses are fully exposed and have one choice: pass them on to their customers. And, when they pass those costs onto their customers, people make choices and vote with their feet when households are already struggling so much about how they're going to keep their head above the rising inflationary water of the Albanese government. So they have a cost-of-business inflation crisis, but then they have the cost of inflation on taxation arrangements.

Deputy Speaker Chesters, coming from the great state of Victoria, you would know that, increasingly, state governments tie their tax rates to inflation and to CPI. So, when inflation goes up, tax rates go up, and who do Labor state governments make sure they target more than anybody? It is always small businesses who are trying to get ahead and employ the future generation of Australians. So inflation is going up, interest rates are going up, and the cost of taxation inflation is going up, and that's before we've even got to the problems of industrial relations inflation.

Many of the different pieces of legislation in the last term of parliament are still washing through our industrial relations and employment landscape. When those costs get passed through, it means higher costs for small business, who are being crushed by the consequences of the Albanese government, and they haven't stopped. They've passed legislation for multi-employer bargaining, and now that is slowly trickling its way through our employment and industrial relations landscape.

We have unions deliberately going out and finding ways to leverage costs and to make it more expensive to hire tradies and contract workers, and where does that land? It increases the costs of things like housing and construction. That hits small businesses and first home buyers, and it means the costs are flowing through to every single Australian. So we have inflation costs, interest rate costs, industrial relations inflation and tax inflation all going up because this Labor government has lost control of the books. This Labor government continues to borrow from tomorrow with debt spending to fuel inflation today, to cover their employment and private sector investment crisis.

There has to be a point where this government understands the damage it has done. But you won't see it from the Minister for Small Business, who has overseen the highest number of small business insolvencies in Australian history, on record. Their response in this House last week was to say:

Maybe they were dodgy.

This is the problem. After we gave that speech and a number of members constantly repeated it, she got up in this chamber and claimed, or started to claim anyway, that that was not what was said. She claimed she was verballed. Well, there's just one problem—and I can't table this document, because it's already a public one—which is the Hansard caught her interjection and exposed that she had said what she had said.

Even more than that, she then tried to mislead the House to cover her tracks. She knows her shameful record. She knows the shameful record of the Albanese government—we all do—but the problem is small businesses in Australia are living it, and more importantly the insolvent small businesses are living it right now. People have lost their futures, lost their jobs, lost their livelihoods and are increasingly finding it challenging to get back up on their feet and start again.

This is the legacy of this Labor government. They have no empathy and no concern or consideration for the small businesses that want to get ahead. This Labor government has absolute contempt for those people who stand up and back themselves to get ahead, and they do so for one simple reason: they can't control them. The modern Labor Party has one objective: maintain control over the lives of Australians. One of the things they don't like about small businesses is they're fierce, they're independent, they stand on their own two feet, they back themselves, they don't look for handouts, they make sure that they fight for their own futures, and they take agency and control of their own destiny. Nothing terrifies the modern Labor Party more than Australians standing on their own two feet and not simply being dependent on the government when they can control them.

That's why we on this side of the House stand up so clearly for small business. That's why every single member here understands that backing small business is not just backing people who are standing up to be able to get ahead; it's backing communities. It's backing the people on the front lines who support our local sporting groups and charitable organisations. When they go under, our social fabric is torn in the process. You should understand this, Deputy Speaker Chesters, coming from a regional electorate. Small business is on the front line, and that's why we have to back them every step of the way. I can sure as hell say that is not what we're getting from the Albanese government.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. At the end of last year, I held a small business forum in Caringbah. I met dozens of small-business owners struggling to make ends meet. There are now vacant shops there. Behind each shop is a family and a person who has lost it all. This morning in Canberra, I spoke to a gentleman from there who has lost his house in one of these insolvent businesses. We hear this number of these thousands of businesses. I spoke to one of those people today, and that is the face of Jim Chalmers's economic failure.

These small businesses employ 70 per cent of Australia. Seventy per cent of Australia is in small and medium enterprises. They make up almost 98 per cent of all businesses, and they are on their knees. There are around 2.6 million of them operating in Australia, and most of them are micro, with zero to four employees. They've got families that surround them, and they are falling over, with 14,722 collapsing—a 33 per cent increase—in the prior year. Their mortgages are going up, and their loans are going up.

Today in question time we heard Treasurer Chalmers be a little bit tricky. Yes, it comes quite naturally to him. We asked him about government spending time and time again. Listen closely to how he answered. He came back and spoke about public demand. He talked about public demand coming off, and that was quite deliberate, because government spending is more than public demand; it shows up in private demand. Public demand does not include energy rebates. It does not include Centrelink. It does not include pensions. He likes to talk about public demand because it obscures the fact that government spending is at a 40-year high, at 27 per cent of GDP. It has never, ever been a higher share of the economy than this year. The only year it might be at risk of being higher than this year is next year.

So what does the Treasurer do? Instead of admitting that, he goes into clever little tricky weasel words and talks about private demand and public demand. He says public demand is coming off. Well, that ignores the electricity rebates. It ignores Centrelink transfers. It ignores all these other transfers where payments are at an all-time high. So, Treasurer, why are you misleading the Australian people? Why are you putting these small businesses under pressure? You're putting mortgages out of reach for Australian people, rents out of reach for Australian people and small businesses under pressure.

These small-business owners were recently surveyed, and it showed a large proportion of them are dealing with lower profits—64 per cent. That is, almost two-thirds of small business have their profits down year on year. Two-thirds—that is amazing. Sixty per cent of these businesses are not paying themselves and not declaring dividends, and 72 per cent said rising costs were their biggest obstacle to growth. These small businesses aren't just numbers; they play essential roles in our community. The record closure rates—these rising insolvencies—are not a normal part of the cycle; they're a symptom of mounting cost pressures. In the developed world, Australia has had the shortest cycle of easing to now hiking rates. It's the shortest cycle ever on record for the Reserve Bank of Australia, underpinned by record government spending. The housing crisis is getting worse. The small-business collapse is getting worse.

For the Minister for Small Business to insinuate they are dodgy, in this environment—why isn't the Minister for Small Business here? She should come back into the House, withdraw those shameful comments and apologise not just to the House but to all these hardworking small-business owners in the seat of Cook and right across Australia. If the Minister for Small Business won't do it, the Prime Minister should come and do it. It is 64 per cent of these people with their profits down year on year, 60 per cent not paying themselves, 60 per cent explaining to their family why they are poorer, why they may risk and lose their house—if a minister can smear tens of thousands of Australians and refuse to correct the record, what does that say about standards in this House?

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

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

The question is that the debate be adjourned.