STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator SHARMA (New South Wales) (13:30): How much harder is this government going to make life for small businesses? They're being hit with taxes that they never voted for, they're paying more for electricity when they were promised it would cost less, they're paying higher interest rates that they cannot afford, they're paying more for inputs because inflation is out of control, and they're facing a thicket of new regulations, whether it's changes to the Fair Work Act, scope 3 emissions or new AML/CTF frameworks that they have to adhere to.

This week, the government is introducing legislation to hit the family trust tax structure that they use to run many of their small businesses—yet another assault upon their business model. Just last week, we saw the government endorse a new blow, and it's the ATO banning them from using credit cards. When the government has told small businesses to suck up and absorb the charges that credit card providers were putting through to them, the ATO said they were going to refuse to do it, and it had a huge hit on the businesses' cash flow as well.

We now have small businesses failing in Australia at a record rate—small businesses which employ five million Australians and which account for one-third of GDP but which, more importantly, provide the lifeblood of our communities, are the source of innovation and are the vehicles for the hopes, dreams, aspirations and ambitions of many Australians. Do you want to know why this is happening?

It's because there is no-one in cabinet with any small-business experience. That's not from me; I think that's true. That's from one of Labor's own members of parliament telling a journalist that there is no-one in cabinet with any small-business experience.

Do you want to know why this is happening? It's because we have a small-business minister who knows nothing about small business—another Labor MP. Labor are hurting small business, and they are hurting Australians in the process.