Wednesday, 22 June 2022

SPC Australia

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:02): My question is for the Minister for Small Business. Minister, SPC boss Robert Giles says higher energy prices will force the canned fruit and vegetable producer to raise prices again if it does not receive urgent government support. Minister, what advocacy steps will you take as small business minister to ensure that businesses like SPC and its supplier small businesses are not hung out to dry, squeezed to death by higher energy prices?

Ms Symes: Remember that time when we forced the coalition to step in and save SPC?

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (12:02): Oh, yes, I think we did that a couple of times, Ms Symes. I thank Ms Lovell for her question, a really important question, matters of energy pricing being of course absolutely front of mind for the 2000 Victorian households and businesses that are gas consumers. There is obviously a great deal going on around the country but specifically along the eastern seaboard in terms of interventions by the regulator in the energy market and of course interventions by the federal government, and there are a number of discussions that Minister D’Ambrosio is leading on behalf of our government.

When I came into the small business portfolio one of the very first questions I asked the department was: is there an agreed definition of ‘small business’? It turns out there is not. There are four or so—everybody uses a different one—but you kind of amalgamate them all and you get a bit of a sense of what is and is not a small business. By none of those is that glorious organisation SPC small, but it certainly would have plenty of suppliers that are small—that would meet some of those definitions if not many of those definitions of ‘small business’. But the spirit of the question is still relevant to very large businesses and to small businesses alike, and it is an important question.

What our department is doing is working with industry to understand the impacts of high energy users. Our highest gas users in Victoria are in regional Victoria, and many of them are in food processing. There are a number of things that the government is doing across a range of portfolios to support energy transition for businesses large, medium and small, and of course the work that Minister D’Ambrosio is leading on behalf of the government in terms of contributing to that national discussion around pricing and reliability of our energy resources is incredibly important. We do have an extraordinary confluence of things that have occurred that are bringing this issue into exceptionally sharp relief for organisations. Some have been impacted very, very quickly, and there is an issue in my own electorate where there is a particularly acute impact as a result of a very local part of this issue. But for every business and indeed every household— (Time expired)

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:05): Thank you, Minister. As I said in my substantive, many of SPC’s suppliers are small businesses. They are family-run businesses, and in fact you joined me at one of those orchards when we spoke about hail netting. So, Minister, I now ask: will you join me for a crisis meeting with SPC’s CEO?

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (12:06): Sorry, I did not quite hear that. Was the question: would I meet with the CEO of SPC?

Ms Lovell: No, would you join me for a crisis meeting with the CEO of SPC?

Ms PULFORD: I have not received a request for a meeting from SPC. I imagine that they probably would not in the first instance go to the Minister for Small Business on this matter. I would also make the point about the small business suppliers, insofar as I have met them and understand their businesses—and I do not pretend to know them as well as Ms Lovell or Ms Symes or indeed other members for Northern Victoria—that in my time as agriculture minister and regional development minister I certainly visited a few and worked with them on a number of their issues, including access to more diverse markets but also their supply agreements with SPC. Our government and indeed I think the former government also have played a very active role in supporting SPC’s production to change. But those small businesses are mostly relatively small gas users— (Time expired)

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:07): I move:

That the minister’s answer be taken into consideration on the next day of sitting.

Motion agreed to.