Scott Morrison successor Simon Kennedy in hit on big business

Parliament’s newest Liberal MP, Simon Kennedy, has accused corporate Australia of using its power to ‘tell individuals and families how or what to think’ and crush small business.

New Liberal MP Simon Kennedy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Parliament’s newest Liberal MP, Simon Kennedy, has accused corporate Australia of using its power to “tell individuals and families how or what to think” and crush small business, as he ­ issued a challenge to the ­Coalition to pursue bold reform on housing and state funding.

The Liberal MP, who replaced Scott Morrison last month in the seat of Cook, wants the states to be forced to compete with each other for federal infrastructure funding based on how many houses they build, in a major shake-up to federalism and housing policy.

Mr Kennedy, who won the by-election with a swing toward the Coalition, making Cook the third safest seat in the country, claimed that governments at all levels were responsible for the housing crisis, claiming 50 per cent of the cost of new homes could be attributed to taxes and regulation.

“The rhetoric of governments around Australia has been to scream about a housing affordability crisis, which is one that is largely of their own making,” Mr Kennedy said in his maiden speech to parliament on Tuesday night. “Today in Sydney up to 50 per cent of the cost of a new house is government – that’s tax, red tape and the planning process. How ridiculous is this? Last year, Australia had 528,000 new entrants into the country, who only had 170,000 new homes to choose from … but it is entirely a failure of government.

“What used to make our country great is the government got out of the way and allowed Middle Australia to build and grow.

“To help achieve this again, I believe the federal government should make states and councils compete for funding and allocate this funding based on their ability to quickly and cost effectively ­release land and approve housing.

“Federal infrastructure funding should be explicitly tied to housing completions.”

Mr Kennedy, a married father of two and former US citizen working in Washington DC, won the by-election with a 7 per cent swing to the Liberal Party, in the absence of a Labor candidate.

On Tuesday night, he saved his most vocal attack for the big end of town, claiming that small business was now the greater driver of jobs in the economy but had the smallest voice when it came to government.

“Small business and individuals have never felt smaller, ­because governments and corporations have never been larger,” he said. “Large governments and large corporates share similar characteristics. They both believe that their size gives them the power and moral authority to tell individuals and families how or what to think. As a Liberal, I ­believe that moral authority rests with the individual, with the family unit, and with the growing small businesses.

“The beating heart of Cook – and Australia – is small and ­medium business, two-thirds of Australians are employed by them. Innovation disproportionately comes from young small businesses. Because small business hires, while large business fires. Research has shown all net new job growth in the economy came from small and medium businesses that grew.

“Instead, we have allowed a system to develop that strangles the growing small business with anti-competitive regulation.

“And we have given our big banks, supermarkets, airlines and unions an outsized voice in shaping our country and its regulations. Australians rightly feel they are being ignored because, right now, our country is governed for the squeaky wheel and for vested interests. For the large corporates with their lobbyists and their megaphones.”

Mr Kennedy decried the lack of zeal for reform from governments, of both persuasions, since the Howard and Hawke/Keating years, claiming productivity was now the burning issue that has failed to be addressed.