ADJOURNMENT

Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (11:52): I want to talk today about the disconnect between politics and community and then about small business and why that should be our focus right now. When I talk to people about what they want from politics, what they ask is, firstly, that their interests are put first and that they are listened to. But that is not what we have seen in the parliament this week.

We have seen a government who has, despite the community having very strong views on what needs to be done on gambling reform, refused to listen to the full list of what the community wants and instead doing what vested interests want instead. That's why people don't trust government at the moment. The second issue is about listening and talking about the things that are most important.

What we've heard a lot in parliament this week is about whether the Prime Minister's comments on a month-old podcast were an innuendo. Now, I thought the Prime Minister behaved inappropriately on that podcast, but frankly, people are not stopping me in the street about this. They're stopping me in the street to talk about things that really make a difference to their lives.

This is what this parliament should be focused on. It's also our behaviour. Community Strong has been running a survey about why people hate politicians, and 70 per cent said it was because vested interests wield too much power.

One respondent said that question time should be something kids could watch and see the best of leadership, but instead it's the most appalling version of a schoolyard. That was again on display this week. We know that Australians are having a hard time.

Shane Wright pointed out this week that Australia's misery index—the combination of the unemployment rate, the inflation rate and the official interest rate—indicates Australians are more miserable than they were a year ago, and we shouldn't be surprised that they're starting to vote like it. I appreciate the government has tried to address productivity, which is so critical to making a difference in people's lives.

I am pleased to see, for instance, in the budget, there were things that I have been advocating for and were delivered, including: changes to ESVCLP and VCLP; Your Future, Your Super; RG 97; loss carryback and refundability; and other tax changes to help redirect productive capital away from unproductive housing. Some of those things will make a difference, but there is a long, long way to go to make the difference Australians are seeking in their lives.

I think the focus needs to be squarely back on how we make Australian businesses more successful and reduce the cost of their inputs in doing business, because then they can actually reduce the costs of the things that they provide to Australians. That is a big focus for me. I want to talk about three things that are key for small business.

Three things that small-business owners tell me matter to them right now, and on which the government could take action right now, are access to capital, social media and regulation. One in five small businesses has trouble accessing finance when they need it. More work needs to be done to make sure that small businesses can access our banking system, but one area in which we can immediately help is access to working capital.

The government should be adopting my proposal to tie payment times to procurement, setting a real enforceable standard so that, if you don't pay your small businesses on time, you don't get to access government funding. Second is social media. Until recently, payment disputes were the largest area of complaint made to the small-business ombudsman; now, it's their social media account.

Particularly since COVID, social media has become the primary communication channel for advertising and brand awareness. That has democratised the space and sparked innovation, but the latter can be pulled up without notice and without redress. I understand social media companies face competing demands to simultaneously come down hard on scams and fraud and also be the main channel for millions of businesses.

But, with no external dispute resolution, small businesses hit by false-positive account flags are flooding my office every month, asking for help to restore their accounts. That's why we need a dedicated ombudsman that can better manage these sorts of disputes—so those businesses can keep on trading. Third is regulation.

Every government comes to office promising to cut red tape. But, since 2006, the number of restrictive terms and regulations in legislation has actually doubled. Meaningful work to address that means structural changes to incentives on regulators and legislators.

That won't happen overnight. But something the government could do right now is lift the small-business threshold from 15 people to at least 25 employees, lifting 46,000 businesses—small businesses by any other measure—out of the red-tape quagmire designed for corporates who are substantially better resourced. These are things that we should be doing right now to make an immediate difference to the lives of people running small businesses and to the lives of our constituents.

So let's stop taking pot shots at each other, stop listening to the vested interests and get back to helping Australians who are doing it tough.