Miss JACKIE KELLY(5.59 p.m.) —Following on from my speech earlier today, the Elegant Knitting factory in my electorate is run by the Holmick family—three generations of Holmicks—who have manufactured various knitwear in Australia, especially in my electorate, since 1981. Prior to that they moved with the government's decentralisation policy to Tamworth and before that they were in Bankstown.

The daughter of the family is employed, as well as the sons, sons-in-law and grandchildren. There are 35 employees in my electorate, as well as outworkers. They are mainly female with the traditional skills of sewing. They compete very well in the current marketplace and believe that they could meet some reductions in tariffs and still perform, still operate and still employ people in Australia. At the moment, they are looking at exit plans for moving offshore.

The worrying thing for them is the reduction of tariffs in isolation. It is something that this government would not consider. If we were to reduce tariffs, it would be in accordance with a preset plan as well as a reduction in tax, which is something this government has given a major commitment to. We have already reduced capital gains tax for business. We have looked at reducing the provisional tax uplift factor. We have looked at reducing the on-costs for business in terms of compliance with ATO requirements. We have developed a one-stop shop with various government reporting agencies. We have gone a long way in the interest of small business which has largely been ignored for the last 13 years. We still have a long way to go and we are still working that way. That is why the small businesses in my electorate still support me.

With regard to the situation of Elegant Knitting, it is something that needs to be looked at very carefully. Their views are fairly well in line with the motion moved by the member for Indi (Mr Lieberman) earlier today.

There is virtually no manufacturing left in Australia after Labor's economic rationalism of the last 13 years. It is something that has really got the goat of people in my electorate. It is certainly not a road this government will go down without a whole policy looking at the entire business environment in which people are operating, where their costs are coming from and where their competition is. We are not unmindful of the tyranny of distance. We are not close to Europe. We are not close to America. We therefore have enormous costs in transporting our goods to market. For those of you who saw a recent 60 Minutes program on the situation on our docks, it should be obvious that a company like Elegant Knitting bears quite substantial on-costs to comply with a contract for delivery to Malaysia.

With changes to industrial relations policy and the unfair dismissal laws, this government is doing things to address that situation. We are going a long way. Labor stymied business for the last 13 years. However, given that tyranny of distance, it is important that Australia maintain some capability in Australia. It would be absolutely disastrous to our national interest, given our need for self-reliance in defence policy and our geographic position in the world, if no manufacturing remained in Australia.

A number of these low skilled jobs have gone already. What is to replace them in this area? Another point in my contribution to the grievance debate today comes from petrol station operators. They wish to know where we are going with the policy on the removal of sites act and the retail petrol pricing act. It is something that is of great concern to them. It is an area where there are prospects of employment, and that is the number one issue in my electorate. A lot of service station operators are working long hours seven days a week. If they could make the margins, they would be more than willing to employ other employees, even if it were for only two or three days a week, to give themselves and their families a break. Between two stations that would be one extra job in Lindsay.

A lot of petrol stations are making 1c a litre mark-up on fuel. That is $140 a week for some of them. On that, they have to pay wages, rent, lighting, electricity and a number of other things. The only way they can make a living from their petrol stations is from the shop and from the workshops that are attached to the fuel pumps. Even now a lot of larger oil companies are looking to move in on that. They are putting black boxes on the cash registers and demanding a certain percentage of the gross turnover.

Something similar has been looked at with retail tenancies in large plazas. I have had a number of complaints in that direction, especially from the Penrith Plaza in Penrith. It was something that was looked at very closely in the report, Finding a balance: fair trading in Australia. It is something this government is considering. During 13 years of Labor, these issues were not even raised. They certainly did not extend themselves to look at where a massive amount of employment is able to come from. Traditionally, in Australia's history, if you were unemployed you could virtually go out, work hard, create your own job, have your own interest, and bingo, you went from being someone who was on a pension, costing the government, to someone who was employed and paying tax. The long-term benefits for this nation are immeasurable. We need to get people back to work in the work force. This is an initiative and a community standard and a work ethic that Australia just cannot afford to lose given our geographic position in the world.

At this stage our primary emphasis should be to protect jobs. We need to look at that, given current unemployment levels which are a hangover from the 1991-92 recession from which Penrith never really recovered. It sent the shops in our area into a tail-spin. We are doing an enormous amount to lift their performance. We are trying very hard to regenerate jobs. In fact, we have had some excellent employment results in Lindsay.

I commend a number of the recommendations in the fair trading report which should see a lot of benefits for franchisees, such as security of tenure. That is incredibly important. People are put in an non-viable situation when large organisations have the ability to determine whether or not leases will be extended, as is the case with a number of petrol operators in my area. They are frightened to be associated with me on this issue. It is something about which they cannot individually turn to the media for assistance because they have no security regarding the termination of their leases.

Disclosure statements are to be provided to purchasers on the assignment of leases. If large fuel companies are aware of competition that is going in—quite often, across the road—near the site that they are leasing to a franchisee, this should be made quite clear. I have examples where this has not occurred.

The other issue I would like to raise today is the access to finance, the securing of finance for business. There is a practice of securing small businesses against their real assets, especially in areas like IT. It really is not commercially viable to do that, and they certainly need a lot of assistance when banks and lending agencies look at the ability or the commercial viability of the small business rather than the assets. Again, that is something our government has addressed in the business innovation fund, which is looking at promoting that area.

We can relieve a lot of the grievances in my area by lowering the cost of government and giving the people tax breaks. We have got the books of Australia back into the black. Certainly over the next two years we will be in a much healthier position in order to allow these industries to help themselves but, in the meantime, their jobs need to be protected. They need to find some status quo while recognising that this government, as compared to the previous one, certainly has a vision, a depth and a compassion for the battlers of Lindsay that they have not experienced in the last six years, and possibly not in the last 13 years.