MEMBER for Macquarie Susan Templeman has used a Parliamentary speech to attack the federal government’s plans to help small business.
Improving the quality of the National Broadband Network, reducing the complexity of incorporation and guaranteeing small business loans would boost small business according to Ms Templeman.
On March 20, she mocked the Liberal Party, suggesting Liberal MPs thought they were the only ones in Parliament to have ever run a small business.
“I have to say that I am sick and tired of hearing [Liberal MPs] ... thinking that they have some arrogant birthright to run a small business,” she said.
“I grew up in small business as the daughter of a newsagent. I have had my own businesses for up to 30 years.”
Ms Templeman said government guaranteed small business loans was a practical thing which could be done to assist small business.
“We are, I think, the only OECD country with no small-business loan guarantee,” she said.
“You have to mortgage or sell your house—my dad had to sell his house to go into business in the seventies—and put your family at risk.”
Western Sydney Senator Marise Payne said the government had already removed a significant amount of red tape to help businesses.
“We are committed to help reduce the costs of complying with red tape by $1 billion every year. We are ahead of our target, having already removed $5.8 billion in red tape on an ongoing, annual basis,” she said.
“The Coalition government has continued to back small business with a $20,000 instant asset write off programme and we have a plan to enable an additional 90,000 small businesses to access that programme.”
Reducing the complexity of becoming a corporation was also something the government ought to do in the opinion of Ms Templeman.
She said when businesses became incorporated there were many tangible benefits and protections that came with it, but some sole traders simply found it too hard to pursue that avenue, even with the benefits such a company structure brought.
Ms Templeman said if the government were serious about helping small business, they would fix up the NBN rollout.
She said the mix of fibre to the premise, fibre to the curb, fibre to the node, wirless and satellite internet connections was leading to outages and slow services.
“Those sorts of things are plaguing small business,” she said.
“FTTN is causing outages, slow speeds, connection problems and shocking service.”
Senator Payne added that the government had reduced the tax on small business to its lowest level in 50 years and wanted to reduce it further.
