Mr MARTIN (6:16 PM) —We on this side cannot share the enthusiasm of the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business (Mr Reith) for the success that he has achieved in respect of getting this legislation through, for a number of reasons. I am sure during the course of our contribution this evening we will try to get that message across. First and foremost, I think it is important to recognise that the Reid committee, to which the minister referred, did hand down a report. That report made recommendations about a number of specific areas in respect of unfair trading. It made recommendations about unfairness, not unconscionability; unfairness in terms of trading relationships between small business people and others in a trading environment. The government's response was to take the unfairness element, throw it away and say, `That won't work. We're going to talk about unconscionability.' It was an issue that had been examined by this committee, which the minister now lauds, but was set aside as being unworkable.

Secondly, of course, one of the major issues that were considered in this was the whole issue of retail tenancy law. Again the minister has set that completely aside; yet the committee, which, I repeat, he lauds in this place—and its chairman, Bruce Reid, the member for Bendigo, and all the other government members should hang their heads in shame on this one—made recommendations about retail tenancy laws. The government completely jumped on those recommendations and just put them to one side. The minister went along to a small business ministers meeting on 5 December last year. He spoke at length to a number of small business organisations and basically said to them, `You take what we're going to put up or we'll give you nothing.' As a consequence, of course, we get qualified support from many of these business organisations for what the government has done.

The opposition has said, `Because of the way this debate has gone and because the government has succeeded in the Senate in getting its watered down version of the legislation in place, a watered down version of the Reid committee report, we support what the government is attempting to do here, although we do not believe it is strong enough.' If the minister thinks that I or indeed the Labor Party might have arrived late on the scene for this, it is a reflection of the fact that this committee that he lauds so mightily around this place brought down, I think in his own words, one of the best reports that we have seen in this place. This side of the House adopted it in full; the government did not. The government, in its legislative program, adopted parts of the report that was brought down in this place. Now it tries to turn around and say that it is responding to the committee's report. It is responding in part to a much weaker and a much watered down version.

You have to laugh. I know the minister is known in some of his press releases for trying to perhaps lead people up the garden path; but, when he talks about the Labor Party delaying the legislation in the Senate or in this place or putting in place a watered down version, you really have to sit back and say, `What is this man talking about?' What we sought to do with our amendments was to simply put in place what the Reid committee had recommended.

There was one other area, and that was of course the $1 million transaction issue. That was an issue that was raised by organisations that he talks about as the big end of town. This was an issue that was raised with small business organisations, by the Property Coun cil of Australia, with a whole range of people. The simple reason is that there are many small businesses that do not get to that threshold of $1 million. In fact they go right past it. They are not going to be caught in this legislation. They are not going to get the opportunity to take an unconscionable conduct case, because they are beyond that $1 million threshold. They are still small businesses and we were trying to bring them in, as were the Australian Democrats through the amendment proposed by Senator Murray. I want to speak a little bit more about that during consideration of these amendments this evening.

But we are not going to be frightened off by what the government is attempting to do with this. We will continue to look at ways in which the small business community can get the benefit of the Reid committee report. We will look at ways to try to keep the government true, honest and correct in every detail of that committee report. Regrettably, we fell one short in the Senate the other evening. It certainly is going to be regretted in the small business community as they understand just what all of this legislation actually means to them. (Time expired)