Ms CHESTERS (Bendigo) (20:03): Like the other speakers in this House, I too am proud to support the motion that is before us, because it is an endorsement of former Labor government policy—policy that I was very proud to support when it was rolled out. This was good, solid Labor policy which acknowledged the important role that our small businesses play and which gave them the incentives to invest and grow. Can you imagine the shock upon the election of a government that pretends to be the government of small business—they pretend to be the party of small business—when they rolled back these reforms? In their first budget they smashed them and they slashed them. They argued that they were worthless reforms. They backed down on good reforms that helped small business. In my electorate, like most electorates, there is a strong network of small businesses. In Bendigo and in regional Victoria, we have a lot of small businesses working hard not just to employ people but also to provide the goods and services that our communities need. On this year's budget night, the government realised the error of their mistakes and reinstated the Labor reforms—the Labor government reforms. We are quite proud to stand here tonight again to put on the record that we supported them when we were in government and we support them again today, like we did on budget night. The fact is that the Labor Party is the party for small business, and the Labor Party has always been the party for small business. We resent the fact that those opposite stand up and claim to be the party of small business. They are not. They have never employed somebody in small business and spoken to them about a fair wage. They have never grown up in a small business and known what it is like to sacrifice your Saturdays and Sundays to work. They have never really owned a small business. They try to claim that they do, but really they are here to champion only one end of town—that is not the small business end of town and that is not the people who work for small businesses; that is just the Canberra end of town and that is just the big business end of town. I am one of those people who proudly stands before you to say I grew up in a small business. I grew up in a second-hand furniture store which today probably would not exist, because of cheap imports that have been dumped on our market. I worked on Saturdays. It is where I learned how to count money. Our family really looked forward to Sundays, because Sunday was the day off. We were in a tourist area. We were on the Sunshine Coast, and we would close on Sundays. It was the family day. Mr Frydenberg: It was your choice, though! Ms CHESTERS: That is exactly right. We closed on the Sunday and that was the day on which we celebrated as a family and we made that choice. Businesses today still have that choice. But what I resent about what this government is doing, and what I resent about what the Productivity Commission is doing, is that rather than taking on a debate about reform or about the Fair Work Act they are trying to hide behind a few regional small businesses and behind cafes. They are trying to make the debate about a start on workplace reform not in this parliament, not at the big business end of town and not in the Fair Work Commission. They are trying to make it in the small cafes in regional communities. They are trying to say, 'This cafe will open if we cut penalty rates.' They are trying to say, 'This small retailer will open if we cut penalty rates.' It is just not true. It is wrong that the government continue to use small business, bully small business and make small business a puppet, saying, 'This is why we are pushing reform.' It is wrong that the government are doing this—just what small business in my electorate are saying during this debate. Some speakers on this motion have mentioned Defence procurement, and I am proud to stand here and say that Bendigo—Josh, are you listening?—makes the Bushmaster. We are proud of the fact that we manufacture the Bushmaster. Mr Frydenberg: Good on you. I am proud of it. I am proud of it. Ms CHESTERS: There are 120 small businesses that feed into the manufacture of the Bushmaster. And we are ready to get on and build the Hawkei. But why won't this government secure those 120 small businesses and sign the Hawkei contract so that those small businesses can continue to secure work, going forward? This government, if it were serious about small business, would have a genuine defence manufacturing policy where contracts were signed that saw work tomorrow, not in a decade's time—tomorrow. If this government were serious about small business, it would own up to the fact that this is good Labor Party policy that it is adopting here today and it would actually do right by small businesses, rather than dividing them from their workers. Debate adjourned.