GRIEVANCE DEBATE
Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (13:24): Back in April, we had a joint media release from the Treasurer and the Minister for Small Business announcing with much fanfare that small businesses under stress because of the fuel crisis would be shown leniency from the Australian Taxation Office. Admittedly, a lot of these announcements shifted the responsibility to industry bodies and regulatory bodies to action, but the media release did say that the ATO would play a role in facilitating leniency and compassion to stressed small businesses.
It is not what the sentiment is on the ground. This is not the case. Bookkeepers in my electorate are at the coalface of small-business sentiment.
They prepare the invoices, they've got real-time understanding of the P&Ls of many small businesses and they know the debtors-and-creditors lists like the backs of their hands. They know what is going on. A local bookkeeper said to me over the weekend: Small business are hurting.
The official figures might not show it yet, but we are living in a recession and have been since Labor took power. Most of my clients are feeling the stress and have had enough. Small businesses are looking to sell.
They have resolved that, if they can't sell before the lease on their shop or factory is due for renewal, they won't be signing a new lease. Instead, they'll be looking, in many cases, to close their business or move it online permanently, operating from a shed or from home. You can think of a florist in a town who's already had to put off her staff because customers are being more careful with their discretionary spending.
The economic stress that we're seeing around Australia is being felt in every country town and regional town. More than ever, clients of bookkeepers are requesting payment plans from the ATO to spread their BAS payments, due to bill shock. In one instance, a dairy farmer in my electorate, wanting to amend their payment plan with the ATO, was knocked back because 'struggling with cash flow' was not a good-enough reason.
Well, I say to the ATO: that's not good enough, and it goes against the fanfare of the government's media release only a month or so ago. The ATO's message is that they will be lenient on small business, but the lived experience of struggling small businesses, certainly in my electorate, is that they are being anything but. Payday super starts on 1 July, and many small businesses are not prepared, not because they don't know it's coming but because their cash flow is already seriously impacted and they are in dire straits.
In Victoria, on many metrics, it's worse than it is in other states across Australia. The Victorian Labor government, who cannot control their spending, are raking in money through the punitive payroll tax and land tax on top of rising energy costs. I always say that payroll tax is a tax on jobs, and it's why businesses are really struggling.
There's a genuine fear that many large international employers in Victoria will close their operations and move either interstate or offshore completely. That's not helping Australian workers. It's not helping small businesses who rely on those larger organisations for contracts.
It's hurting our entire economy. I want to say to the cafe owners, the mechanics, the farmers and the retail shop owners in my electorate: I'm there for you. The coalition is there for you, and we will stand up against state and federal Labor governments trying to punish you.
I want to speak again about the West Gippsland Hospital. In October 2022, then premier Daniel Andrews pledged up to $675 million for a new West Gippsland hospital, telling our community the project had been 'costed, planned and funded'. Construction was meant to start in 2024.
Patients were supposed to be in the new hospital by 2029. Four years on, not even a single brick has been laid. The latest state budget delivered only a fraction of the original commitment, with no funds to start construction.
That is an absolute broken promise. A new West Gippsland hospital should be a tertiary hospital. It should be a teaching hospital—I believe that passionately—and that means the federal government should be looking to have a conversation with the state government on block funding.
I'd be very interested to know if any request from the Victorian state government has been made. I think I know the answer. Drouin is the fastest-growing town in West Gippsland, and Weebar Road is a classic example of infrastructure not keeping pace with population growth.
I'm passionate about getting this fixed. My state colleague Wayne Farnham and I are doing everything we can to get this funded, and we won't stop until it's delivered. I'd like to talk about sovereign capability in this country.
A case in point this week is an article by Matthew Knott in the Age about the import of Russian hardwood timber via third-party countries to help circumvent the high tariffs put in place following the invasion of Ukraine. You might ask why we need to import hardwood timber when we've got an abundance of hardwood forests here, right across Australia, particularly in my home state of Victoria.
The Victorian Labor government is the answer. They've effectively shut the native timber industry in my state. We're talking about timber that on an 80-year rotation is harvested and replanted.
In Victoria, you're talking about six per cent of the entire forest estate, so when you're looking at harvesting that it's really one-eightieth of six per cent. Timber is the ultimate renewable because it can be replanted. With significant housing targets, we need timber as an available, renewable and sustainable resource for home builds.
So, in the infinite wisdom of the Victorian government, they haven't just killed off jobs; they've limited supply, they've brought in blood timber and they've jeopardised our sovereign capability. Fertiliser is another example. We could've been making more of it in Victoria.
The Latrobe Valley has got the largest single deposit of brown coal in the Southern Hemisphere, and that coal-to-fertiliser project that was proposed is now up and running in New Zealand. It's a terrible indictment on Australia's sovereign investment reputation and it's a shocking outcome for regional jobs. On the topic of sovereign capability, I want to raise the issue of the continued encroachment upon prime agricultural farmland from renewable energy projects that should not be in those spaces.
Community members in these areas have no issue with renewable energy technology on the whole, but they do have an issue with the complete lack of social licence and the further encroachment on prime agricultural farmland. It's a real issue in Victoria. The Australian Dairy Farmers, the peak body, have warned about the overlap of these projects.
There's about 1.8 million hectares zoned for these projects in Victoria. Food security is national security, and in places like West Gippsland, where you've got prime horticultural and dairy country, that should be preserved for those purposes. Ben Bennett from Australian Dairy Farmers says: Dairy country is not easily replaced.
Australia already has comparatively limited areas capable of supporting intensive food production systems such as dairy … He went on to say: Once productive farming systems are fragmented or permanently changed, rebuilding that productive capacity elsewhere is extremely difficult. Making that land available that is special and unique for intensive agriculture is important.
I think we should be having a national conversation about this because, as I said, food security is national security. A number of constituents have raised this with me and have asked for assistance and representation. Again, I'll be working with Wayne Farnham, the member for Narracan, and standing up for our local community.
Another point I wish to make briefly is about the mandatory minimum payout terms for superannuation death benefits, because some superannuation giants are taking the absolute micky. I've worked with a number of constituents to help get them their money. It's their money.
It's not the superannuation giants' money to muck around with and keep. Many of these constituents are older women, having gone through the profound grief of losing their spouse, that are put through every obfuscating obstacle to get what is theirs. ASIC, the regulator, says that payments should be made 'as soon as practicable'.
In other words, there is no mandatory minimum timeframe on which death benefits can be paid out. A few years ago there was a light handed, industry led code of conduct implemented. It was around the time when complaints to the ombudsman tripled, and we're not talking about a couple of cases.
Over 4,000 Australians are waiting up to four years to access their own money. The government said they'd look at the issue of mandatory minimum timeframes on death benefit payouts. That was nearly 1½ years ago.
It must act. The evidence is overwhelming. ASIC's claims handling review has released a landmark report that says that 78 per cent of reviewed death benefit claim files were delayed by processing issues.
That is not good enough. Under current superannuation law, a fund may be required to pay death benefits to a person who used family and domestic violence against the deceased. That is desperately cruel, it is wrong, it is unfair, and I say from this federal parliament that needs to change.
Lucas Baird, in the Australian Financial Review, has shone a light on the super sector, and I commend that. But I want to say to the government: we've well and truly waited enough; it is time to get on with it. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Payne ): There being no further grievances, 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