ADJOURNMENT

Ms LE (Fowler) (16:30): Small businesses are the backbone of our communities and our economy. I have said that in this House many times and I will keep saying it until this government acts on it. My electorate of Fowler sits across two council areas, Fairfield and Liverpool.

Between them there are close to 50,000 registered businesses. The overwhelming majority of them are small businesses. Behind every single one is a hardworking family, many of whom are first- and second-generation migrants who arrived here with nothing and built a life over generations.

For them, a business is not just a livelihood; it is independence, it is security and it is the reason their children have choices they never had. Our sector is as diverse as our people, from the family owned Vietnamese fruit shop near my office to Trooper Lu's motorbike garage in Moorebank, to Farage, which is the tailoring house that still cuts and sews in a factory in Surrey Hills and supplies uniforms to the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force.

They tell me that work is now being reduced. Different industries and different suburbs but the same reality: rising costs, power bills, insurance, rent and red tape. They are doing it tough, and too many feel abandoned by this government.

Last month, I introduced a private member's bill to put Australian businesses first in Commonwealth procurement. It would prioritise Australian businesses in Commonwealth tenders and require at least 30 per cent of Australian content procurement for selected Commonwealth projects. Each year, the Commonwealth spends billions on goods, services, construction and technology.

That purchasing power belongs to the Australian people and it should be used to back them, to let local businesses invest with confidence and take on apprentices and to strengthen the supply chains that keep our communities moving. Farage shows exactly what that looks like: a Commonwealth contract, an Australian factory, Australian workers and Australian wool.

Yet that is the work now being reduced. An Australian factory supplying our own defence force—and the orders are going the other way. If this Commonwealth will not back Australian manufacturing for its own uniforms, why exactly will it?

Too often our businesses are shut out and forced to compete with multinationals and cheap imports on price alone, and price alone never counts the jobs we lose, the skills we lose or the sovereign capability we give away. Instead of using procurement to back Australian industry broadly, this government has leaned on its Future Made in Australia agenda, with $22.7 billion over a decade directed at renewable energy, critical minerals and green manufacturing, which is largely to attract foreign investment.

Let me let me be clear: I'm not against clean energy or investing in new industries, but a future made in Australia cannot mean a future made in only a handful of chosen industries. What about the businesses already manufacturing here? What about textiles, which is an industry that was once central to Fairfield and Liverpool that gave work to thousands of migrant women in my community?

They did not wait for a government package, yet many are being squeezed out while billions are being directed elsewhere. So I ask this government three things: bring my bill on for debate; strengthen the Commonwealth Procurement Rules so Australian content is a requirement, not an afterthought; and report to this parliament on how much of that spend actually reaches small businesses in regions like mine.

The people I represent are not asking for handouts. They never have. They are in the kitchens and the bakeries before four in the morning.

They are still behind the counter at 10 at night. Their children do their homework at the back of the shop. They employ their neighbours and they are the reason our high streets are still alive.

They're asking for a fair go at the work their own taxes are paying for. The least this parliament can do is buy what they make.