STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (13:39): Higher taxes, higher power bills and a botched surcharge ban—when it comes to small business, Labor keeps hitting 'decline'. Under pressure from this government, the Reserve Bank banned card surcharges from 1 October. The cost of accepting cards did not disappear; it landed squarely on the shoulders of small business.

Now, after a backlash, the Labor government is changing its tune. This morning, the minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories told the Sunrise program that the banks, not small businesses, should be paying for the point-of-sale machines. The government's own minister now concedes the job was only half done.

If Labor government ministers like the minister for regional development are really serious, they should march on down to the Prime Minister's office and demand he intervene. Comments on breakfast telly will not pay a single small business's bill. Retailers in my electorate of Monash are telling me they've got no choice but to lift prices by a flat percentage across the board—even for customers who are paying cash—because everything is going up for them, from electricity to insurance costs, under this Labor government.

Small business owners have had enough. Walking out of Canberra Airport this week, you will see their messages on a billboard, loud and clear. Their message is simple: stop putting a surcharge on small business.

Labor has maxed out its credibility with small business.