STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr BOYCE (Flynn) (16:18): Labor should be backing small business not breaking it, but, instead, we see another ATO credit card ban circus, a stay of execution funded by taxpayers. Labor is handing out a taxpayer funded bailout to the taxmen while 30 small businesses go bust every single day. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer are telling our small businesses to cough up, shut up and close up.

This credit card surcharge spin is no different. Australians aren't mugs. You can't abolish the real cost with a social media post.

If a local cafe can't pass on a credit card surcharge, that cost gets built straight into higher prices for hardworking consumers. This is part of a broader pattern of government that has completely lost control of the budget and the economy. Under Labor, gas prices are up 44 per cent.

Families are staring down the highest interest rates in 15 years. The national debt has passed $1 trillion. On top of that, we are waking another $11 billion tax grab on the private health insurance industry that hits 1.2 million pensioners and floods our already struggling public hospitals.

While Canberra keeps spending, small businesses and regional families are paying the price, and it's time for Labor to stop hiding the cops, stop penalising small business and start putting Australians first.