SMALL Business Minister Michael McCormack has returned fire at criticism of his nationwide roadshow, with Labor accusing him of favouring electorates held by Coalition MPs.
Mr McCormack hails from the sparse agricultural seat of Riverina in regional NSW and has travelled about 37,000 kilometres between late February this year and mid-May visiting other MPs in their electorates to promote small business enterprise and gather feedback on hot button issues in those regions.
But Labor ACT Senator and Shadow Small Business Minister Katy Gallagher said the government’s “much promoted” small business roadshows had been held “almost exclusively” in Liberal and National electorates.
Senator Gallagher said 90 per cent of the forums publicised on the Minister’s website had been held in government held electorates, with the local Coalition MP present, along with public servants from the Australian Tax Office, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and the ACCC.
She said only three roadshows had been held outside of Liberal and National electorates and the local member was invited to none of them, with the Minister instead preferring to bring along a neighbouring government MP or Senator.
“Labor believes that the small business roadshow program is a good initiative but the fact that the forums have been held almost exclusively in Liberal or National Party electorates, supported by taxpayer funds and with the attendance of public servants, is deeply concerning,” she said.
“The Minister must provide a full explanation over why it appears that he has used his ministerial portfolio and taxpayer funds in a politically partisan way.
“The small business roadshow should be reaching out to all small businesses across the country, not just reaching out to those who voted for a Liberal or National MP in 2016.”
But a spokesperson for Mr McCormack said the nationwide small business roadshow would visit communities across the country and had commitments booked in a range of seats, including some represented by the Labor Party, the Greens and Independents.
“The majority of the first part of the roadshow has been in regional areas, which are predominately represented by Liberal and National MPs,” the spokesperson said.
“Having run his own small business in country NSW for eight years before he was elected to Parliament, the Minister felt it was important to start in the regions, because regional people have often not had the same access to different government agencies as small businesses in the cities do.
“This is why the roadshow locations have included a number of smaller, rural locations, such as Denmark (WA), Stanthorpe (Queensland), Murray Bridge (SA) and Oberon (NSW), as well as larger regional centres.
“The remaining visits were scheduled around speeches, official engagements, logistics or availability.
“The roadshow planning commenced in December 2016 and always intended to visit as many electorates as possible, depending on schedules and availability.”
The spokesperson said the Minister often had other engagements, such as speeches and official engagements and the roadshow fits around that schedule and was also subject to change, on those terms.
“The Minister intends to visit as many federal electorates as he can to meet with local small businesspeople and hear their ideas and feedback,” the spokesperson said.
“Eighty electorates have been visited or are scheduled for visits so far for the period since the Minister’s appointment to end-October 2017.
“The Minister welcomes the opposition’s interest in the small business roadshow and is encouraged by their support.
“He looks forward to continuing visiting electorates of all colours right up to the end of the year, further building on the constructive outcomes already achieved.”
The spokesperson said Mr McCormack was the first regionally-based Small Business Minister, in Australia’s history, and was focused on bringing government, including policy-makers and support services, to the regions.
“The government believes all Australians deserve access to public service agencies and Ministers, regardless of where they live,” the spokesperson said.
Roadshow tested at Senate estimates
Senator Gallagher also raised the roadshow issue at Senate estimates hearings in Canberra this week, before the Economics Legislation Committee, with questions to Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell and Deputy Commissioner Dr Craig Latham.
Ms Carnell said, “We have not had any input into where we go”.
But she said the roadshows had been “really useful” and provided “a really good environment and opportunity to listen to what is on the mind of small business and their issues”.
“The ATO talks about the things that they are doing, the ACCC talks about what they are doing and we talk about what we are doing - then we throw it open to the floor and it is fascinating to hear the sorts of issues that small businesses have brought up in various parts of Australia,” she said.
“We started in South Australia and at that stage it was energy - they had just had the outages - and there was a whole range of issues in that space.
“The issues are different around Australia but similar as well - it has been a good way to get a pretty good handle of what is on people's minds.”
Dr Latham said, “That regional difference was really striking”.
“Many of the issues we have seen time and again - things like payroll tax, the payment terms, the importance of apprentices and a lack of skilled labour in various parts,” he said.
“Energy costs are still coming up, even outside South Australia.
“It has been quite insightful.
“We have a number of assistance matters coming out of it as well - trying to help on particular issues as well as the broader advocacy issues that come out of it.”