Page 965 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012

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Wednesday, 21 March 2012

MR SPEAKER (Mr Rattenbury) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

Family businesses

MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.01): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the important role that family businesses play in Australian society through creating wealth, generating employment, delivering services and supporting their communities;

(b) the particular requirements of family businesses including:

(i) reducing the regulatory burden placed on them;

(ii) implementing appropriate succession planning; and

(iii) overcoming the lack of accurate and longitudinal data; and

(c) the role Family Business Australia plays in supporting and advocating for family businesses in Australia;

(2) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) acknowledge the importance of family businesses in the ACT;

(b) ensure the particular needs of family businesses are taken into consideration when the Government makes decisions; and

(c) ensure that Government services to business include appropriate advice and assistance to family business; and

(3) calls on the Minister for Economic Development to write to the Federal Ministers responsible for small business and associated policy areas to ensure that family businesses are accommodated in business policy development by the Federal Government and that the Australian Bureau of Statistics collects appropriate data about family businesses in Australia.

Thank you, members, for the opportunity to discuss family businesses in the ACT. The national CEO of Family Business Australia, Philippa Taylor, was to join us, but I understand she is on a plane somewhere between here and Melbourne, and of course good old Canberra fog has got in the way. Hopefully Philippa will join us during the day. The chairman of Family Business Australia in the ACT, Matthew Power, is, I suspect, picking her up at the airport. Perhaps during the course of the debate they will arrive and we can acknowledge their presence at that point.


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