Mr BILLSON (10:45 PM) —Just before Christmas last year I thought all my Christmases had come at once. I was fortunate enough to be able to launch the Regional Home Based Business Study for the south-east region of Melbourne. It was something that I have felt very strongly about for a long time. I have been urging local councils to act on the matter of home based microbusinesses that are very much part of the electorates of Dunkley and Isaacs and the general south-east region of Melbourne. I know that this study enjoyed my support and that of the member for Isaacs and members from both sides of politics when it was launched in December.

The study was commissioned by the City of Casey which, from all accounts, is doing an excellent job trying to stimulate economic activity in their municipality. It was funded by South East Development, the area consultative committee that operates over the south-east of Melbourne. The study was aimed principally at getting a handle on this phenomenon of home based businesses, because all the anecdotal evidence and advice coming through from the microbusiness network that Barbara Gabogrecan and others are so active in is that the micro- and home based business sector is an enormously important area of outer metropolitan economies. This is very much the case in the Dunkley electorate and on the Mornington Peninsula.

The fascinating thing about home based business surveys that were conducted in the lead-up to the preparation of the strategy is that home based businesses have a number of highly desirable characteristics which, in my view, warrant closer consideration by all levels of government. Home based businesses in the south-east region are sustainable. For example, almost 50 per cent have been in existence for five years or more and more than 40 per cent of these businesses have a turnover of more than $100,000. Almost 50 per cent of home based businesses have the intention of increasing their level of employment. That implies a potential for between 1,200 and 7,000 new jobs in the region if we can leverage home based businesses and give them the support that this study identified as being necessary.

But the highest need for home based businesses is external support. Being from the local government sector, I am familiar with the—at times—hostile attitude of some councils a number of years ago towards home based businesses, particularly if they were inappropriate home based businesses operating in residential areas and having a negative impact on the amenity of that neighbourhood. But this study identifies a large number of home based businesses that can operate and prosper in an entirely compatible arrangement with local neighbourhoods. They represent quite an exciting employment opportunity that has not been properly tapped or fully supported by any level of government. The total number of people employed in the south-east region is a tad under a quarter of a million. Those employed in home based businesses are estimated to be around 15 per cent of the total employment level. That is 35,000 to 40,000 people employed in home based businesses in the south-east region of Melbourne. That is a large number of people contributing to the local economies and a large number of home based businesses with the potential to employ more people.

A number of recommendations came out of the study focusing on external support. There were a couple of recommendations that I particularly paid attention to. One of them was the need for information. Home based businesses are generally very self-reliant in obtaining information. A number of them avoid registering with the normal institutional structures that would otherwise generate information because of fear that they would be subject to the less than welcoming treatment that a number of them have experienced in the past. Having said that, though, we need to address this information need so that microbusinesses are aware of potential customers, marketing information, government regulations and support programs and can take advantage of them.

Beyond that access to information, there is also a need for commercial support services at an appropriate scale. Some of those involve the new technologies in the Internet service area which I have been actively working at supporting, particularly with a proposal for an e-commerce summit on the Mornington Peninsula that I hope the National Office of Information Economy will get behind. Another idea that has come out of Barbara Gabogrecan's work—and I must take my hat off to her, she does an enormous amount of networking for the microbusiness community—is a home based business expo that would enable a lot of these smaller operators to come out and share the opportunities that each represents with other home based businesses in the area, to celebrate their contribution to the economy and also to take advantage of the changing ways of doing business, in particular online commerce.

The local councils need to have a look at their town planning regulations. I know Frankston City Council has already done that and I look forward to being further briefed on that. I wish the new mayor of Frankston City Council—Councillor David Dawn—well and hope I have the opportunity of discussing these matters further with him, as well as with the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. This is an important area. I hope the government will get behind home based businesses. (Time expired)