Jim Molan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We're here today to talk about the vexed subject of support to small business, covering not only what we traditionally know as small business but also agricultural business—many farms being small businesses, many being big businesses. I would just make a comment to Senator Ciccone, who at least spoke—and, to his credit, spoke well—about small businesses. We understand the extraordinary impact these fires have had on businesses, on individuals, and we can mourn the deaths that have occurred within these fires: 33 deaths, including a vast range of people.

But one of the factors that I noticed, listening to the senator speak, was that the New South Wales government very quickly came to terms in detail with the proposition put by the federal government in relation to agricultural packages, small-business packages and many others. I don't know for certain, Senator, but I suspect that the state government who is responsible for delivering the package in Victoria has not yet agreed to the terms. Certainly South Australia and New South Wales agreed to them last week, and the money is flowing out. I think that's a very important thing. The problem, if it's not being delivered in Victoria—I can say this as a New South Wales senator—may be the fact that the state government has yet to agree to the terms and conditions.

My exposure over many years to disasters of this nature has been essentially through the activity of the disaster, whether it be famine, fire, earthquake or tsunami, inside or outside Australia. I've seen up close the tragedy of these bushfires that we all speak about now. I've seen natural disasters and the unnatural disaster of war. I spent 19 days from Christmas Eve travelling around the fire areas, providing support to people and reporting back to our organisation on how to help small businesses, individuals, large businesses, councils and many other people. That's a manifestation of the assistance that we have provided to everyone in these areas.

Senator Hanson-Young forgot the nature of the MPI and merely stepped back into nowhere to criticise Hawaii travels. She forgets that there are three sources of fire. As a rural bush firefighter, as someone who fought these fires for six days and travelled around the firegrounds, I'm fully aware that the source of any fire is fuel. In this case, in many, many areas the fuel load was extraordinarily heavy. The second source of these fires was the availability of oxygen. Because it was hot and dry weather, the source of oxygen was there. The third was the source of ignition. That ignition was certainly there for many, many reasons. What makes small business and everyone else vulnerable is the fact we now live in the bush to an extent that we have never lived in the bush before.

This government is helping small business. It's put out agricultural packages. It's put out small-business packages. It's put out tourism packages. It's put $100 million into clean-up packages, $58 million into support for families, $100 million into small-business agricultural grants of up to $75,000, $15 million into additional funding for the Rural Financial Counselling Service and $50 million into supporting immediate work to protect wildlife long term. We won't be lectured by Labor or the Greens on this issue. We help small business, and we have traditionally, and we were supported by the voting population in the last election.