CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax) (16:52): The Sunshine Coast has the greatest netball players in the country. There is nowhere like the Sunshine Coast, and I was delighted recently. I went down to the courts at the bottom of Fishermans Road in Maroochydore, and I was there to announce that they have secured a $2,500 volunteer grant.

This grant will basically help the clubs talk to each other, especially when you've got so many people across the courts. It will include training for the volunteers and also the purchase of walkie-talkies so that, as the games are being played, they know not just that things can not organised but that the kids, in particular, can be kept safe. For all of the thousands of netball players across the Sunshine Coast, you are making us proud.

Keep going! We love netball. Small businesses are being absolutely smashed right across the country, and that includes in my electorate of Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast.

Recently, I received correspondence from a fellow by the name of Chris Atkinson, who manages a 45-year-old business. With his permission, I want to share a little bit of a story about what he is going through. What he said to me was that his business expenses—his wages are up 26 per cent and fuel is up 50 per cent.

Keep in mind he runs a fleet of 25 vehicles. His energy costs are up 200 per cent. He's done all the right things, by the way, with installing solar panels, but costs are still up 200 per cent.

Insurance is up well over 20 per cent, and you've got increasing freight costs and supplier fuel levies. This is just one example. Let me read out part of his letter, with his permission: 'It has put me in a position of being another business owner looking to walk away from operating a business and employing humans.

It just seems so futile considering the personal, financial and emotional cost of managing something for minimal financial gain and even less future wealth potential. If that's the decision I make, it will leave three commercial properties empty and 40 staff out of work.' Attached families without an income is a poor outcome for any government. More importantly, it's a poor outcome for the economy and it's a poor outcome for the workers.

But Chris Atkinson and other business owners are fighting because they fight for their employees, for their customers and for their future. But it requires us to fight for them down here. Chris, we are fighting for you and other small businesses.