Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. I ask the minister to inform the House what steps the government has taken to ensure savings from the repeal of the carbon tax are passed on, including in my electorate of Casey.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to get a question from the member for Casey. It was great to be in his electorate recently, talking with small businesses. It is also an important anniversary today. It has been 300 days since I have received a question from Labor about small business—300 days have passed. I know the Leader of the Opposition had a lot of trouble working out which of the previous Labor leaders to follow—whether to follow Prime Minister Gillard or to follow Prime Minister Rudd. He is following former Labor leader Kim Beazley who, in a moment of great clarity and honesty, said, 'Labor has never pretended to be the party of small business.' The opposition leader is clearly following that.

I was pleased to meet, along with the member for Casey, a number of small business owners in his electorate a few months back. There the discussion was about the need for this government to get on with its Economic Action Strategy, to restore opportunity, to restore prosperity, to give people that encouragement that they so yearn for but never received from the previous government. They were also urging that we got on with the abolition of the carbon tax. I am thrilled that we have been able to achieve that ambition.

I was particularly pleased to get an email from Tony, the owner and operator of the Mount Evelyn Supa IGA—in fact he was at that discussion hosted by the member for Casey. He sent me a note saying, 'Great big thanks for abolishing the carbon tax.' He went on to describe what the achievement of that election commitment meant for his business. He is saving $1,800 a month, every month, on his electricity bills. He has calculated that, with the refrigeration systems in his business and the need to regas those systems, he will save a further $4,700 a year as a result of the abolition of the carbon tax. He said to me that that was more than $26,000 of direct savings as a consequence of this government abolishing the carbon tax. He said, 'That goes a long way towards paying for a staff member.'

He was delighted that this government has done exactly what it undertook to do—and we have the systems in place, with a tough carbon cop on the beat, to make sure those savings are passed through to small business, to consumers and to households. But do you know what he was most excited about? He said, 'I am most excited about the abolition of the carbon tax for my customers.' He said that it had put money back into their pockets. He is ready to take on the competition in Mount Evelyn, he is ready to offer them good service and a good deal—and he is encouraged that not only is he seeing savings, which are supporting his business success, but that his customers are seeing money back in their pockets.

We are getting on with the job in this parliament. We are not only the friends of small business; we are the only friends that small business has in this parliament.