Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Chair. It was refreshing to hear the comments from the Minister of Justice that the Government is acutely aware of the pressures on small and medium sized enterprises. That has been a little bit in doubt over the last week or so with the comments of MP Deborah Russell which a lot of small businesses interpreted as being If you can't survive five or six weeks maybe you shouldn't have been in business." The sense was that it was a widespread held position. Then Willie Jackson followed up immediately with the comment that he made which was in relation to an extra week wouldn't make much of a difference. Then the Prime Minister at the same time said when she extended the lockdown that it was only two working days which came as a great shock to many businesses that work over the weekend and have always worked in that way. Then of course it also comes on top of the Government's decision to press on with increasing the minimum wage on 1 April right in the middle of a crisis when businesses had no revenue whatsoever and no ability to do anything but they still continued on regardless with that increase.There's been a real concern that while there have been all kinds of kind words made there hasn't been clarity around an understanding of the needs and pressures of small businesses in this country. So the questions that we heard this morning in relation to the relief given to those businesses were that the insistence that continues to be made from the Minister and the Prime Minister that small businesses have received the wage subsidy is a misnomer because in most cases the wage subsidy is going to the workers the employees of those businesses; it's not just money going to the small business for them to spend on whatever they like. Most of those small operators that have been told in the interests of public health that they can't operate and they have to close down are then left wondering how they are supposed to survive.What we've heard is that the loan scheme isn't really working in effect and we understand there's been a lot of pressure put on by the Minister of Finance for banks to lend out the money but the rules set up by Treasury are quite clear that normal business lending criteria should apply. So it should come as no surprise to the Minister that personal guarantees are required and it's actually difficult for businesses to get access to that money. How he could possibly be surprised by that is beyond me.Then when we look at the question of rent we heard promises five weeks ago from the Minister that they were working on it and that something was on its way and there was a thought that something would come out before Easter. Eventually the only thing that we've seen so far is some extension to termination of contracts. Well that's not what people had in mind. But the only point I'd be making here to the Minister is some encouragement to actually—and I don't doubt for a moment that he as Minister is focused on the issue of small and medium sized businesses. I just encourage him to go further and to recognise that in the interests of the broader community a lot of the pain is falling on that particular sector and encourage him to look for ways particularly given the extension of the lockdown longer to provide effective relief to those businesses and acknowledge that we would support him in doing that if he can find practical and effective ways to offer that support."