MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Dr MULINO (Fraser—Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services) (15:35): I can only imagine, when news went out in the community this morning that the opposition leader was hosting an MPI today on small business that small business operators around the country thought, 'Here's my chance in my very busy day to take a little time out to log into live streaming of parliament to hear the opposition leader's great plans on small business.' All around the community, people had great expectation about this Thursday afternoon's MPI, where the opposition leader would finally lay it all out—his plan for small business.

Although I don't want to misrepresent parliament and suggest that that is literally true, what I would say is the reason why it's important to imagine a small business operator logging into today's streaming is because, if any small business operator was actually listening to that last 10 minutes, what they would have heard was about just anything but small-business issues.

It was about six minutes into that 10-minute speech, the first time that I heard 'small business' mentioned. Instead, what we heard was minute after minute of juvenile personal attacks, a rambling stream-of-conscious tour through the issues of the day according to the Leader of the Opposition—or rather stream of the subconscious. What we heard in that last 10 minutes was really the problem of the opposition—their knee-jerk reaction to every single issue of the day with an irresponsible populist response rather than a coherent response.

I'm going to talk in my speech about small business, about the actual topic of the MPI. I'm going to start by saying that we on this side understand that small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy. Small businesses are the local cafe owner operating before dawn; the tradie working on weekends to grow their business; the retailer backing their community and the family business, employing local people; the small business operators working long hours putting their whole into their business, taking risks, and taking an idea and a dream and making it into a business reality.

There are more than 2.7 million small businesses operating across Australia, and they employ millions of Australians. We understand that and that's why it's such a priority for this government. We understand that higher costs, skills shortages, supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates have all placed pressure on small businesses, who are already doing it tough, and that's why we have a whole raft of policies that we have already delivered, and so many more that we are working on and will deliver in the future.

We have already provided so much support to small business through the tax system. One that stands out is making the $20,000 instant asset write-off deduction permanent. That is something which small business had been calling for, for a long time.

Until the last budget, it had been an annual dance as to whether it would be included in the next budget. Now small business has certainty on this deduction that is so important for so many businesses. We are delivering $3.5 billion in business tax relief to support investment, productivity and growth.

We are introducing a permanent two-year loss carry-back for eligible businesses. This will help businesses recover faster and invest with greater confidence, and that is so important in times like this, with uncertainty in global conditions, with uncertainty in broader economic conditions. Around 1.5 million sole traders will benefit from our tax relief measures for working Australians.

We are also working on cutting red tape across the economy, including for small business. In the last budget we identified over $10 billion in savings from better designed regulation. The Leader of the Opposition mentioned the National Construction Code.

They left the National Construction Code in a position where it was imposing huge costs. As a result of the three-day Economic Reform Roundtable convened by the Treasurer, the National Construction Code has been frozen. I identify and applaud the work of the Minister for Housing.

That is going to lead to more houses being built. That's something which we did. The opposition, when they were in government for almost a decade, didn't move anywhere near that.

It's not surprising in some ways because, for so much of that period, they didn't even have a minister for housing in the cabinet. We're helping small business deal with so many of these cost pressures. We're also dealing with a range of other measures that affect small business, including helping them with their energy bills.

We've provided significant relief in previous budgets to energy bills. The surcharging reforms are important reforms that have been called on for so long by consumers and businesses alike. Australia is one of the leaders in fintech, in financial and payment system technology.

I was at an event this morning where we were lauding the efforts of innovation in the fintech sector. But, when it came to surcharging, we were basically the last major advanced economy to have surcharging. So the RBA made recommendations and then implemented a ban on surcharging.

This is very important for consumer transparency. It means that the price that is advertised is the price that you'll tap. What we understood is that small business needed a transition period.

The ATO implemented a transition period of two months. When we heard loud and clear that small business needed longer, we acted. That transition period will now operate all the way through to the end of the financial year, 30 June next year.

The Treasurer and I have asked the ATO commissioner to work on arrangements—for example, for hardship—going beyond 30 June next year. Labor has strengthened protections for franchisees and is boosting enforcement of the Franchising Code of Conduct. We have also extended unfair trading protections to small business so that large businesses can't use their market power to push small operators around.

This includes, for example, measures which the assistant minister for Treasury, the member for Fenner, has worked on with the Treasurer in relation to increasing price-gouging penalties tenfold. These are important measures which have been very instrumental in making sure that companies face real threats if they abuse their market power. We're also promoting faster payments for contractors and subcontractors working on major Commonwealth backed projects, because small businesses should not be left waiting to be paid for work that they've undertaken.

We understand how important cash flow is for small businesses. Small businesses don't pay their bills with rhetoric. The last 10-minute contribution, by the Leader of the Opposition, had so much rhetoric.

As I said, it was a bare minority, a sliver, of that speech that even referred to small business. These are concrete actions that we've taken that have reduced the tax bill, that have reduced the regulatory burden and that have improved regulatory structures for small business. Those opposite, from the almost decade that they were in power, could point to almost nothing in that realm that was actually delivered.

Let's look at the alternative and what's actually happened in practice. Time and again, those opposite have opposed measures designed to support workers, households and economic growth. We know they've opposed almost every cost-of-living support during this last 4½ years.

We know they've opposed tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, but they have also delayed support for small businesses, including extensions to the instant asset write-off when those measures came before parliament. So those opposite talk the big talk—and this was something which came up a lot in question time today—but, when it comes to actually voting for measures that will help small business, when it actually comes to voting for measures that will reduce tax burden and when it actually comes to tough measures that are needed for responsible economic management, they decline to take that opportunity time and time again.

The coalition and One Nation are also falling over themselves to announce the biggest, most unrealistic, most unmodelled cuts to migration. Their plan will affect the cafe owner trying to find staff, the regional business that can't recruit workers or the employer who's trying to find skilled workers to grow. That's why business peak bodies around the country are complaining about the irresponsible behaviour of the opposition chasing One Nation in a race to the bottom.

It's just one other manifestation of their incredibly incoherent and irresponsible approach to economic management. On top of that, it's an entirely cynical political exercise which is going to have very damaging repercussions for social cohesion. I want to focus today—unlike the Leader of the Opposition and, I imagine, some further speakers—on the actual topic at hand: small business.

I want to re-emphasise that there is a long list of things we've done for small business. That is very concrete. There is more to do.

We understand—I understand—that many small businesses are still doing it tough, so we will continue, in the next budget and budgets in the future, to do more. But we have done a lot that is proof positive that we take this issue very seriously.