MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE (Northern Territory) (19:04): Well, we can all try to be convinced by the government's high-spending, high-taxing, demonising-small-business agenda, but the truth is Australian small businesses are fed up. They're fed up with the constant unnecessary stress caused by this Albanese Labor government. There is no better example of Labor's complete and utter disregard for small business and their complete and utter lack of understanding of the realities of small business than Labor's harebrained 30 per cent trust tax.
Around 350,000 Australian small businesses are using discretionary trusts. These are not wealthy investors; they are builders, tradies, retailers, hospitality operators and family businesses across our regions—businesses often built over generations. They are the businesses that employ Australians.
They train our apprentices. They are those who take the risks that keep our economy moving. Now, Labor wants to change the rules under which they operate.
The independent estimates suggest restructuring and advisory costs could reach $13.3 billion, and Labor expects our small businesses to foot that bill. That is $13.3 billion not spent on new employees, upgrading equipment and training apprentices. Industry stakeholders like the Housing Industry Association have rightly condemned this tradies tax.
At a time when Australia desperately needs more homes built, why is this Albanese Labor government so hellbent on making it more difficult for businesses to try and build them—higher costs, more regulation and Labor's toxic taxes have put thousands of small businesses across the country on the brink of collapse. This latest thought bubble is no different. Labor doesn't seem to care, though, what we are seeing when we're seeing record insolvencies across Australia.
A third of Australian small-business owners have considered closing their business in the past 12 months. That's one-third. It is simply not good enough that small businesses are treated as an afterthought by the Albanese Labor government.
Yesterday, when questioned in this chamber about the realities of Labor's latest tax, Senator Wong pointed to the number of small businesses supposedly operating under Labor. But a business registration tells us nothing about whether that business is profitable, can afford another worker or is barely keeping its doors open. If Labor actually bothered to listen to our small businesses, they would know that they are hurting.
It has been one thing after another thanks to this government—higher taxes, higher power bills and Labor's botched credit card ban. It is telling when even the MIA minister for small business, Anne Aly, is forced to acknowledge that, under this Labor government, Australian businesses are hurting. As shadow minister for small business, I hear from employers who are angry.
They are worried and exhausted by mounting costs and uncertainty. They want to get on with running their small business, not spending their savings adapting to yet another Labor tax. Australia should be the country where people are encouraged to take a risk, start a business, employ Australians and build something to pass on to their children.
We need a tax system that is fair, predictable and workable, not one that punishes small businesses with picking up Labor's tab. Small and family businesses deserve certainty, not another bill. They deserve a government that backs them, not one that keeps moving the goalposts.
The Labor prime minister and treasurer and the missing-in-action small business minister need to stop and actually listen to small businesses. Start backing our small businesses instead of breaking them.