Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (15:08): If you want to see the contempt that the Albanese government has for families, households and small businesses, you just need to see the arrogance of the Prime Minister in question time. Every time we get up to ask a simple question about the survival of small businesses, he shuts down question time, and he has good reason to do so, because the simple reality is we had more small business insolvencies in the Commonwealth last year than we have had in Australian history. Dr Aly interjecting— Mr TIM WILSON: I hear the heckling from the Minister for Small Business on the other side of this chamber. I would be ashamed and embarrassed if I saw a record number of small businesses crushed under my administration, but the minister sits there peacocking, proudly saying that she is proud of her record, when she should be ashamed. Forty-thousand small businesses have been crushed into insolvency under the Albanese government. This is not something to be proud of. It is something to be embarrassed about and ashamed of, because sitting behind every one of those small businesses are the livelihoods, the incomes, the dignity and the pride of Australians backing themselves to get ahead. What they are living with right now is increased costs not just from the explicit increase in interest rates and inflation but from a cost-of-business crisis. Millions of Australian small businesses are struggling to keep their heads above the inflation water level. They are experiencing costs pushed down onto their small businesses, harming their profitability. This morning I met with people from the restaurant and food sector. Their profit margins have simply collapsed. The capacity for a small business to be opened to serve Australians has declined so much that one in nine Australian small businesses in the restaurant and hospitality sector has closed. It is an extraordinary record of this government and something that it should be ashamed of. But it's not just the inflation impact. With state governments indexing so many of their taxes to inflation, we're seeing a direct hit from increases in inflation, a second hit through interest rates, a third hit through the cost of taxation inflation and, in fact, a fourth hit directly as a consequence of the Labor government's industrial relations agenda, which is pushing on inflationary costs further for small business and making it harder not just for small businesses to get ahead but for households to stay ahead. So many are being pushed to the wall. What is going on with that? It isn't just a small business, as critical as that is. Sitting behind those millions of small businesses are employees—young Australians who are getting their first job, people who depend on small business for an income. When a small business collapses, the wage disappears. It seems like a simple truth, but, when you have a small business collapse, the jobs go with it. There are no taxes paid, there is no income and there is no super on a job that doesn't exist, and this is the lived reality under the Albanese government. We know that, as of 2 February of this year, 41,749 businesses have gone bust under the Albanese government. In construction, it's 10,757. It's 6,487 in accommodation and food services; 2,046 in manufacturing; 1,168 in health care or social assistance; 541 in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and 406 in education and training. While the minister on the other side of the table likes to boast about her record, she cannot hide from some simple facts. The 33,426 fewer employing small businesses in Australia— Dr Aly: Maybe they were dodgy. Mr TIM WILSON: I will take the interjection from the Minister for Small Business, because what she said was, 'Maybe they were dodgy.' Just like the Treasurer, her response to the challenges Australian households and small businesses face is to punch down on Australians. This is not the type of country they want to be, and it is certainly not what they want to see from this parliament. Honourable members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Order! I'd appreciate it if everybody stopped yelling, actually. I can barely hear the member for Goldstein speaking. Mr TIM WILSON: This exposes the underbelly and the motivation of this government. There is a pure contempt for those people who make the effort, strive and back themselves to the point where they create opportunities not just for themselves but for others. The response from the minister—we just heard it in the chamber, and then she defended her comment—was, 'Maybe they were dodgy.' The simple, broad-brush allegations and criticism of small business—the demonisation of small businesses—because of the attitude of this government are why we have seen record insolvencies. Now is the time when those small businesses and those households need Australians to back them. They need this parliament to back them, but the contempt that we have from the minister shows something entirely different. That is why Australians are feeling the very real consequences of inflation and declining standards of living. Today we heard direct warnings that inflation was going to continue to eat into the wealth of Australian households. People are going to have lower standards of living, less capacity to support their families, less capacity to go and employ others—all under this government. We have had a record of economic vandalism par excellence if you call that a standard under the Albanese government. We've had Labor's economic vandalism, where households are now paying 16 per cent more for food, 18 per cent more for health, 22 per cent more for rents, 39 per cent more for insurance and nearly 40 per cent more for electricity, and every one of those costs—every single one of those price rises—goes to a small business, eats into their profit margins and increases their capacity to find their way to the ATO and ASIC to the point of insolvency. Why would a government be so proud of shutting down the pathways for Australians? We are in the business of backing small businesses to open their doors, to welcome their customers and to grow the opportunity in the economic base of our country. Any government, state or federal—the Albanese government in particular—that looks at small business as simply an ATM to cover the costs that they face because they are unable to manage their reckless spending will continue to drive small business to the wall. We know that is happening, because the analysis by the Australian Industry Group clearly shows eight in 10 jobs created in this country right now are coming from direct and indirect public expenditure. We have a crisis of collapse of private investment and private jobs, despite what the Prime Minister and the Treasurer say. The problem of inflation that we have in this country comes directly from fiscal recklessness. The Chalmers interest rate rise cycle has, sadly, only just begun. We have had quotes from the retail sector. We have had quotes from so many different people in the small business sector that they know how bad this is going to be and how Australian small businesses and households will pay. We need them to rein in their spending. People on the other side of the chamber often ask, 'Where are you going to see cuts?' I can tell you where we would cut expenditure: we would cut the cartel kickbacks that go to organised crime and to bikie gangs through the CFMEU and find their way into union coffers and into the coffers of the Australian Labor Party. I make no apology about that, because they are pushing up the cost of a new home for young Australians, they're pushing up construction costs and they're contributing to the problems of inflation. Now is the time that people and Australians are looking to this parliament to stand up and make decisions in the national interest. Now is the time that they're looking at how this parliament is going to back them to prosper and to grow, and instead they are seeing and hearing the sneers of the Minister for Small Business, saying things like, 'If a small business goes out of business, it must be because it is dodgy.' This is a disgrace, and it is nothing short of contempt. Dr Aly interjecting— Mr TIM WILSON: The minister can throw whatever barbs she wants, but I can tell you the small businesses of this country know exactly who is on their side. They know that the Liberal Party has always stood up proudly, backed them in and made sure the laws of this country say: 'Chance your hand. Go for your life. We back you because you back yourselves.' What they don't deserve is a prime minister and a minister for small business who punch down on them and try to deny them their economic opportunity and their pathway for growth. We back small business. They want to hate on them.