Mrs GASH (9:54 AM) —As if the economic crisis is not bad enough and as if our record-breaking national debt is not bad enough, this government wants to compound it all by introducing a raft of new workplace laws that can only be described as counterproductive. For any business, but especially small- to medium-sized enterprises, the Fair Work legislation is anything but fair. It explodes onto Australia on 1 July 2009, the new financial year—and what a financial year it promises to be. Although presented in the House and in the media as principally dealing with dismissal law, the new law makes enormous changes to wages, conditions and how you run and sell your company. These are changes that could in some cases put a business out of business, but all of them will impact negatively on business.

Big business has the capacity to absorb the changes, yet SMEs are sensitive to the point of being endangered. The legislation has been written as if all private companies are organic to the Public Service and can afford enormous overheads and compliance costs. There is almost a unanimous view in the business community that the Fair Work legislation has been designed by unionists for unionists. It has been adopted by this government to thank them for their efforts in the last election. It is a payback for the millions of dollars of members’ funds spent to support the Your Rights at Work campaign.

The legislation provides manna from heaven by reversing the onus of proof, a fundamental principle underpinning hundreds of years of our common law and democracy. The reversal of proof provision means that an employer will be presumed to have done wrong unless they can prove to the contrary. They will be penalised if they cannot. To stop business becoming impossible, all Australians, especially SMEs, must work together as the trade unions do to stop this unbelievable nonsense. We can and must maintain the integrity of our workplaces so that future generations have a right to access work and a livelihood for themselves and their families.

Business, not the government and not the unions, is the creator and generator of jobs. At the moment there are a significant number of employers seriously contemplating taking their enterprise offshore or cutting back on full-time employees and junior casuals. This is as a direct result of the attack on them by this government and its supporters. One local businessman has taken a stand. He has created a website where concerned businesses can register and then work united to resist and to protect their business. The website is www.savejobs.com.au. I urge all business owners to have a look. It may take time, but if we do nothing we are effectively giving this government permission to control our lives and our businesses. This is not what Australia is about. This is not what I am about for my constituents of Gilmore. May I remind the House again that it is businesses that employ people who ultimately pay taxes.