Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the Senate on the contribution which small businesses make to creating employment? What measures has the Howard government taken to assist this sector to grow and to create even more jobs? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bernardi for his question. Senator Bernardi has a deserved reputation for being a real champion of small business, and the reason he champions the cause of small business is that he knows of their job-creating capacity. There are nearly two million small businesses in this country and over the past three years the number of people employed by small businesses has grown by 31 per cent.

Unlike Labor, the Howard government has sought to assist small businesses to employ even more people by removing the Keating government’s so-called ‘unfair dismissal’ laws—laws which were an impediment to job creation in this country. In fact, since these laws were repealed—in the face of Labor opposition—we have seen over 200,000 jobs created, 80 per cent of them full-time. That is what Labor opposed: 200,000 new jobs, 80 per cent of them full-time.

The problem with those unfair dismissal laws is well known. Take the following comments:

... small business owners could not afford the time or expense of being dragged off to tribunals by ‘ambulance-chasing agents representing frivolous or vexatious claims of unfair dismissal’. Such claims were often designed to extract ‘go-away money’ ...

I wonder who said that. Those opposite know. It was Dr Craig Emerson, the Labor Party’s spokesman on small business, only two days ago. Yet another Labor figure said this about Labor’s policy on the ABC’s Madonna King program:

I am saying to you right now ... that I have not said ... that we are exempting small business [from the unfair dismissal laws].

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who said that?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One and the same person—Dr Craig Emerson—two days later. He was walking both sides of the street. Isn’t it lucky for Dr Emerson that streets do not have three sides, because otherwise he would be in all sorts of bother trying to walk down all of them!

The simple fact is this: Labor knows that these laws are bad, yet they are not prepared to do anything about it because if they came into government they would be reintroducing these job-destroying laws. Why would they be doing that? All we need to do is ask our friend opposite, Senator Kirk—facing unfair dismissal herself from the Senate because she dared to think for herself and not do what the union told her to do. In Senator Kirk’s own words: ‘I did actually receive a threat from the national secretary of the union as a consequence of my vote. I can’t be expected to be supported for preselection. That’s the way it works.’

More disturbingly, not only is the Labor Party beholden to the trade union movement but also, as has now been exposed, it is beholden to the likes of Brian Burke. The former leader, Mr Beazley, admitted he regularly met with Mr Burke and now we find out that the new leader, Mr Rudd, also met with him on a number of occasions. To discuss what, I wonder? Foreign affairs? I think not. It is about time Mr Rudd levelled with the Australian people and told us exactly what those discussions were about.

Unlike those on the other side, the Howard government has not been infiltrated by the trade union movement or the likes of Brian Burke. The Howard government, by taking the strong and difficult decisions, does what is right for the workers of this country, what is right for the families of this country and what is right for the wealth creation of this country. And Labor under Mr Rudd has not. (Time expired)