Page 976 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (10.32): I was thinking of saving time. I could speak on the lot in one speech.
MR SPEAKER: I might put Mr Barr’s amendments and then come to yours. It might be simpler, process-wise.
MS LE COUTEUR: Okay. The other issue from a process point of view is that my numbering is based on the original motion and if Mr Barr’s amendments get up, my numbering will not be correct.
MR SPEAKER: We will fix that.
MS LE COUTEUR: If we can cope with that minor technical issue.
MR SPEAKER: We can cope, thank you.
MS LE COUTEUR: I might dwell briefly on some of the issues in my amendments, but I will try to resist the temptation. I thank Mr Smyth and Mr Barr for their contributions to this debate. Family businesses do play an important role in Australian society, as does all business, and I think it is very important that we in this place consider the issues of business as well as the issues of the general community and the government.
The Greens traditionally have had strong support in particular for small and medium sized businesses. As Mr Smyth pointed out, small and medium sized businesses are not the same as family businesses. Most family businesses are very small but a significant number of them are very large. From the Greens’ point of view, we would see that there is a difference, probably, in how we would want to approach those.
As to some of the larger family businesses, I understand that ALDI is a family business. The Packer empire is also technically a family business, as is, I suppose, the Rinehart family business. These businesses have some different issues to smaller businesses. The Greens are focused on small and medium businesses more than whether the ownership is largely family. That did appear also to be the focus of Mr Barr’s speech.
Bearing that in mind, the Greens believe that small and medium businesses have a very important part in the ACT economy. I think there are about 20,000 small and medium businesses in the ACT, and they perform a vital role in keeping our economy running and in supporting many tens of thousands of Canberrans.
They also have a very vital role, because being small they tend to be more agile and nimble and are usually the early adopters of things. It is small family businesses who have often been the first adopters of new technology. I am thinking right now of Dyesol over in Queanbeyan. They are now, I suppose, at least a medium, possibly towards large, family business. Nonetheless they are typical of the begin-small family businesses which have been leaders in technological developments because they are agile enough and they are committed enough to be able to go in the green direction. That is the sort of innovation that we need for a clean, green economy in the ACT.
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