PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr PIKE (Bowman) (18:39): The previous speaker, the member for Macquarie, spoke of the importance of achieving a dynamic and a competitive economy, and I think that's something that all sides of the parliament would agree we absolutely want. I suppose where the difference is is where we draw that balance to try to achieve that. One of the great pleasures of my role—and I'm sure every member of this place enjoys this—is the opportunity to doorknock local businesses and speak to local business owners about the challenges they're facing but also where government might be able to make their lives easier or give them more opportunity for success.

I dedicate quite a lot of time to going through the small-business precincts of my electorate, and I try to speak to as many business owners as I possibly can about how things are going. And I don't think it's any secret; I think all sides of the parliament would agree that small businesses are doing it very, very tough at the moment. Confidence is definitely down.

The attitude that makes me concerned, from speaking to local business owners, is that the risk appetite is down considerably. People who once upon a time might have been very excited about opportunities to grow their business are now telling me, 'I've got this way to grow or I could grow this way, or I could do this to get a new opportunity, but it's all too risky,' and, in many of these discussions, the biggest risk is around putting on new staff.

What these small businesses tell me is that they need confidence and certainty in order to invest, and we need to ensure that any action we take on non-compete clauses maintains confidence and certainty for small business, particularly at a time like this, when they are struggling in such a bad way. The coalition believe Australians should be able to get ahead and use their skills and pursue better jobs and earn higher wages, but we need to find a balance.

We need to balance that with the need of Australian businesses to protect their legitimate commercial interests. I'll give you the example of a local real estate firm who contacted me, concerned about what the government was pursuing in this area. Obviously, a real estate firm is one in which your market intelligence, your access and your contacts mean everything.

If a local realtor employs someone within their firm who could walk out the next day and go work for a competitor, that is a significant risk for their operations. It just means that they're taking fewer risks around adding more employees to their books. The results, unfortunately, if we get this wrong, will be that businesses will employ less and we're going to have fewer jobs created.

We need to get the balance right. Unfortunately, too often we're seeing this government getting the balance wrong. That's why real wages are down five per cent.

At the same time, we've had over 28,000 small-business insolvencies in the last two years. We note that the government released an exposure draft of the non-compete legislation in September. Consultation closed on 2 October.

The coalition, of course, will carefully examine this bill, as we do with every bit of legislation once it's introduced into the parliament. But we're concerned by what we're hearing from the business community, and I wanted to read some of the comments that have been made publicly by some of the business groups. COSBOA have noted in their press release that the bill 'goes much further than the reform originally announced by the government and could create significant new costs and challenges for small businesses'.

They said: For many small business owners, their business is the asset that they spent decades building … When they sell, the goodwill, customer relationships and knowledge built up over those years are part of what the buyer is paying for. They go on to note: This legislation needs to target genuinely unfair non-competes without exposing ordinary small businesses to disproportionate penalties, undermining the value of their businesses— and often they've spent a lifetime building that.

This would be creating significant legal uncertainty, which COSBOA are ringing the bell about. The Australian Industry Group have said: The changes introduced banning non-compete clauses for many workers are unnecessary and will result in predictable problematic consequences for many in industry. The government needs to explain why its proposed policies go well beyond what was originally announced and how it intends to protect those legitimate business interests that those groups have highlighted.

Getting the balance right here is absolutely critical, and that's what the coalition will be seeking as we assess and address this bill and potentially move amendments as well. We're keeping a close eye on this, and we're really keen to ensure that balance is achieved.