Small Business Roundtable

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:11): My question is to the Minister for Small Business. Can the minister advise the house about the recent Small Business Roundtable?

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:11): Thank you, sir, and I thank the member for Little Para for his question; there are a lot of small businesses in his electorate. This morning more than 25 heads of small business organisations gathered in the Old Chamber for the Fifth Small Business Roundtable, that is, the fifth such round table conducted by the Weatherill government since 2014.

The round table is a great opportunity for people who represent thousands of small businesses—the beating heart of our economy. It allows direct access to ministers on a range of topics, and can I thank the Minister for Automotive Transformation and the Minister for Local Government and Regional Development for attending this morning.

Today's forum considered the opportunities for small business among the raft of programs designed to assist automotive-centred businesses to move into other opportunities. Concerns were also raised at the forum about delays in planning reforms. That is an issue for consideration in another place, but it is clear from this morning's meeting that those delays are hurting small businesses.

The round table was also an opportunity to hear from businesses about how we can maximise job creating through the recently announced Small Business Development Fund. The $10 million fund is part of the Northern Economic Plan and will be rolled out after July 1. We have consulted with major business organisations, and again today I took the opportunity at the Small Business Roundtable to consult with representatives from small business about how we should construct that program.

It is clear that the fund needs to include employer grants to small businesses to take on new employees in specified job-seeker categories, particularly those potential employees, the very young, the very old, those who most need our help. Also, that it needs to include start-up grants for people starting a new business based on matching funds, contributions from business and business expansion grants to job-creating SMEs.

So, Mr Speaker, we sought this opportunity to listen carefully to the advice of small business so as to guide our policies going forward on how to create more jobs for them. There is considerable growth in some sectors of the SME sector, particularly in regard to exports of primary produce, meat, wine and advanced manufacturers.

We are committed to keeping the administrative burden with the grants programs to a minimum. We will be targeted and swift and we will aim to get people in jobs as soon as we can. We will build a better economy as we transform from the old one to the new economy, and I thank the representatives from the various SME associations who attended this morning.

Can I also indicate that I have met now with quite a large number of small business organisations and listened carefully to their wish list, if you like, their list of concerns. There is often about 15 to 20 key points of concern. We are working through those 15 to 20 points with each industry association point by point and will get them an answer one way or the other on each of the issues they have raised. My aim is to get through nearly all of them over the coming year or so.

Can I also congratulate the industry advocate, Ian Nightingale; the Small Business Commissioner, John Chapman; the Department of State Development, and the red tape reduction unit in the DPC. We meet weekly to go through the issues confronting small business to coordinate what we are doing, and all of those officers are doing a splendid job in making sure that the lines of communication between the government and job-creating SMEs are open for business.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call to order the members for Chaffey, Mount Gambier and the Treasurer.