Tuesday, 26 August 2025

EO&E

Thank you Marco, and thank you to Annie, to Danny, to Brucie, to everybody who's here, who has a 'y' at the end of their name, but to everybody who's part of this amazing journey of releasing this incredible report. And look, there's no point dancing around and repeating what Anne has just said. The reality is small business matters. Small business matters because it goes to the core of the future success of our country and one of the reasons why the Coalition always believes so strongly in small business is because it is part of the thickets of the economy of our country. When you think about how our country is best run it is not from Canberra down, it is from communities and small business and commerce built from the bottom and from community level up. And so while I greatly respect the remarks that Anne has just said about how we build-in small business as part of policy making in government, I think we need to make sure it's at the front of every decision that we make as government. Because when we make policy decisions that are focused on how we from Canberra impose solutions down, we are getting the policy framework wrong. We should be seeking to foster and build an environment that's from the foundations of the success of our nation, from the citizen, the family and the community up. And when small business does that, they grow, they thrive, they prosper, and they go on to be part of our national success. And that is what small business is. It's part of the continuing story of Australians who back themselves, who innovate, who dare, who dream, who put on the line their homes, their aspirations and their dreams. Sometimes, a huge sacrifice and risk, and yes, sometimes it doesn't work out. But there is, of course, no reward without some risk and responsibility. And so at every point, government should be seeking to get out of their way and back them every step of the way, because they're the ones that then go on to employ other people and give them the chance to go and employ other Australians along the way. And one of the great things, like Anne, is I've run my own small business as well. And I think about what it was like when I first set up my small business. And when I did it many, many moons ago, and you had to do all the invoicing by paperwork, then it was digitised, then you went through the process where you can now do it through platforms like Xero, and now it's done through platforms where it's automated. And the amount of time that has been truncated because of technology... and it is only going at a rapidity and a speed that is far transcending anything that I've experienced in the past. And I can't even imagine what it means for so many small businesses now that do it with technology, particularly in spaces like retail, or if you go into the private dining rooms where you have small businesses selling beef tallow or mats that then go on and sell them through major distribution centres like those of Amazon. It transforms people's success. It enables them to scale on a level that they have never done before. It means the corner café that I go to every day when I'm in Melbourne, that otherwise might have to pay a very expensive fee to access merchant terminals and might have to have a deep and penetrating relationship with a bank, can essentially now go to an organisation like JB Hi-Fi and buy something. I'm now giving a plug essentially for Square, but be able to buy something off the shelf. The reality is, we do it in politics, in terms of being able to access donations. So when we see things like technology and the empowering impact it can have on small business, it is not just something that we're excited about, it's something we see as central to the vision and the future. The challenge for us as policymakers is to turn around and say, how do we enable it? How do we empower it? How do make sure that small businesses continue to want to do so? And the exciting thing is that so many want it. They see it as an opportunity and they want it to thrive and the data is all there and I've seen data from the Australian Computer Society that has shown the appetite, the hunger and the thirst that now exist with artificial intelligence and the willingness to lean in. So now is not a time to take stock, though it is, and that's what this report does. It's also a time for excitement and what can be done if we lean in. So the programs that the Minister has outlined are, of course, exciting and important, but they are not the end, they are but a continuation of what yet can be done. So let us be excited about the future of small business and how digitisation can be part of building its future. Because when we do build out the success of small business, we build out the success of a fabric of communities and build out the pathways of aspiration and opportunity for the next generation of Australians. We shouldn't ignore the real and challenges that come and the complexities that flow. Of course, any day we know the realities of cyber threats and what they can therefore mean for businesses and their risk, and whether it's payment platforms and how they then flow through to security of being able to access finance at critical times. And I always say to people, if you want to see how a risk in the Australian economy might start, just see what happens if a payment terminal at your local café shuts down for a few hours and people can't pay for their coffee, let alone what might happen at a supermarket. So investing in these systems and these platforms matters. Government, private sector working together to make sure that we can be part of building out the backbone of these systems because they're so important, but because they go to the success of business being able to sustain themselves. And while I haven't had a chance to have a long chat to Mal from Impact Comics up the back, and we both have, obviously, a shared love for comic books between the Minister and I, I did collect comic books as a kid. Yes, I am that nerd if you go and look at my first speech, my first, first speech in this place. Sammy J, the comedian from ABC, dared me once to insert the word phantom in my first speech and I did. True story. But more importantly, I also collected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics, and Mal, you don't realise it, but you've promised us a pizza party in Parliament House later this year. We'll bring it up here in November. But when we have businesses that are doing things, delivering services that customers want, we're delivering human happiness. And that's what you do. And that is exactly what Fluffy Torpedo does. And that's what the ceramics businesses do. And that's what the photography businesses do, and that's every other small business in this country does. It brings customers, it brings businesses and supply together, and it mills out human happiness. And that's why we should love small business. That's why this report matters. That's why it reflects everything we do. So all I can say is keep innovating, keep taking risks, be bold, be part of our communities and thank you for everything you do. Thank you.

 ENDS