Small Business

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:40): It has been a fraught return to parliament after the winter break. We have had several weeks in between parliamentary sittings, and certainly a lot of my time has been occupied fielding calls from individuals, households, but particularly small businesses that have been concerned about the impacts of the coronavirus, and in particular the restrictions on social movements and business operations, on their livelihoods.

It has been an extremely busy time for me trying to assist these businesses to try to navigate the different government authorities and agencies so that they can either get better clarity on the restrictions or can petition the government perhaps to reconsider some of the elements of the restrictions so that they themselves can get some normality to their lives and try to keep their head above water in these difficult times.

I have always kept in mind that we had parliamentary sitting days coming quite soon so that I would have the opportunity on behalf of my constituents, and all those other people outside the electorate of Lee, who have contacted me to raise their concerns with the government. I was looking forward to doing that yesterday, sir. Of course, we had the—how can we put it—unpleasantness of a ballot for the Speakership followed by a further ballot for the Speakership. Well, we have already reflected on what happened after that, haven't we, sir? Unfortunately, as a result we were denied the opportunity for a question time because other more pressing important matters needed to be canvassed.

I was looking forward to the opportunity for my colleagues and me to raise some of these issues today, and I found it curious, I have to say, that some members were able to better articulate their questions in the question time that we have just had and that those questions, despite having points of order raised against them for containing debate, for example, were able to continue and be answered by ministers, but other questions—for example, one from the member for Enfield—were not.

I would have thought that in these times it would be the strong wish of all parliamentarians to hear concerns from all members, to hear questions from all members, so that we can get further and better information from the government about what the government plans to do to help those households and help those businesses deal with the worst impacts of the coronavirus, and in particular small business.

South Australia at recent count had something of the order of 140,000 small businesses, and a large proportion of those are sole traders. You might be surprised to learn, sir, that sole traders have not been eligible for state government assistance when it comes to small business. You might be interested to know that because they did not qualify for JobKeeper, they were not entitled to qualify for the small business grants, which were briefly available from the state government.

The Leader of the Opposition quite correctly raised the issue that South Australia has the smallest economic stimulus spend in the nation. That is not our contention: that is the contention of the Prime Minister of Australia. That is the contention of the Reserve Bank governor. That is what has been widely reported in national broadsheet newspapers, and so it is a little offensive when we have a Premier here in South Australia who tries to say differently to this place, who tries to tell South Australians something that quite frankly is untrue.

South Australia is not pulling its weight when it comes to economic stimulus in response to the coronavirus. It is absolutely imperative that all of us in this chamber, particularly those of us on this side who do not have all the benefits of being able to speak to their counterparts in government who might hold the treasury bench, have the opportunity to raise issues on behalf of our constituents. Sir, if I could provide some advice, such as it were in this position, could I perhaps seek your indulgence in considering how well you would do by this place by ruling a little more equitably and fairly when it comes to giving us the opportunity to raise issues on behalf of our constituencies.

When we do not have those opportunities, our electorates—the 25,000-plus voters within them, and their households and families—are unrepresented in this place. So, please, sir, do us the same service that you do your party colleagues.