Small and Family Business Support

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Small and Family Business. Can the minister update the house on how the Malinauskas Labor government is supporting South Australia's small and family businesses?

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (14:43): I thank the member for Badcoe for her question, because I am always very happy to stand in this place to talk about the importance of small and family businesses to South Australia and, in particular, the importance that small and family businesses have to the Malinauskas government and to talk about the great things that this government has already delivered for them.

It is hard to believe it has been nearly two years since the Premier and I launched our $22 million Small Business Strategy, and it has been an incredible two years. I am incredibly proud to say that we have supported over 15,000 businesses through our programs under our strategy—15,000. That includes 650 CALD business owners and 300 First Nations business owners. We have had more than 4,000 women in business participate in our $7 million Women in Business Program. We have had over 5,400 business owners strengthen their core capabilities through training and mentoring in our fundamentals program, and more than 400 business owners have accelerated their growth, improved their cyber security and embraced sustainability through our specialised programs.

We have also injected an extra $3.2 million in the last state budget to cut red tape and drive growth. Beyond that, we have also approved more than 1,000 small businesses to share in over $23 million in our first round of energy efficiency grants, which has saved them $24 million each and every year in their energy costs. Because of the success of that program, we have backed it with another $20 million in the round that is open now. This, of course, is all in addition to the very generous supports that we have in place for our small businesses that are impacted by the algal bloom, by the drought, by floods. These are some incredible results.

Unlike those opposite, I can back this up with legitimate evidence; I just confirmed this was not done by ChatGPT. Our Women in Business Advisory Program found that 44 per cent of participants grew their revenue by more than 10 per cent, and 88 per cent increased their workforce. The SA Business Chamber found that 30 per cent of businesses in the fundamentals program improved their cash flow, boosted profits and expanded staffing.

Since the Malinauskas government came into office, we have gone from being ranked fifth in the economic rankings to the second best in the country, but those opposite do not seem to like good news. We had the highest number of hospitality openings ever in the 2023-24 period, and the Business Council of Australia has named us the best place to do business. Why? It is because those of us on this side of the house back South Australian small businesses.

Let's not forget that under the former Liberal government there was not even a Minister for Small Business. These are the backbone of our economy. We have 160,000 small businesses, countless small family businesses. They had no dedicated voice under the former government, but today and through this term of government, we have a voice at the cabinet table and a government that prioritises them. That has been a significant change under the Malinauskas government.

In fact, we had our second Small Business Week just a couple of weeks ago. We had a whole week dedicated to celebrating our small business community. We had Bernard Salt and leading business leaders at our expo. We had over 250 people at that. We had over 800 attendees throughout the week in our own hosted events and 26 other events throughout the regions. This week, and what we have done with our Small Business Strategy, shows exactly why this kind of government support is important to our small businesses, the benefits that they are gaining from this policy.