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My appointment as Shadow Minister for Small Business, Deregulation, Competition Policy and Sustainable Cities within Shadow Cabinet are responsibilities I grasp with both hands and much energy and enthusiasm.
Having experienced first hand the real-life challenges faced by small business operators across Australia, my long-held admiration and affection for the small business community can be carried forward with a strong Coalition voice and pro-small business policies that highlight how this crucial sector of the economy has faced difficult going under the Rudd Labor Government.
Rather than listen and respond to the legitimate concerns and new challenges small business operators and employees are facing, the Rudd Government has favoured a ‘big government, big spending, big talk and dealing with big business’ approach.
With Prime Minister Rudd’s stated ambition to have the Federal Government at the centre of the economy, Australia’s 2.4 million small businesses and nearly 4 million employees know they each don’t have a Canberra lobbyist seeking new spending and special deals and are therefore not a priority under Labor’s ‘big government’ approach.
Despite enormous amounts of taxpayer support for our banks, viable, reliable and well-managed small businesses face another disadvantage in securing finance with increasing costs, re-risk ratings and demanding terms and conditions, and fewer options.
The once wry line that ‘a bank will only lend small business money if you offer your house and first born as security’ is now all too real for too many that have been loyal and dependable customers with years of business success, strong trading performance and a positive future.
While Harvey Norman and other leading retailers might offer customers ‘no interest for 2 years’, small businesses didn’t expect to get the same ‘no interest for 2 years’ from the Rudd Government.
At a time when thoughtful and principled deregulation and competition policy can energise our economy, support recovery and open up new opportunities for innovation and prosperity, the Rudd Government has failed to present a coherent strategy for securing these potential gains.
A similar lack of focus is evident with the Mr Rudd completely and conveniently ignoring Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry’s warnings about the policy challenges presented by forecasts of a ‘population explosion’ over the next 4 decades.
Rather than tackle the policy challenges and impacts on out growing and groaning cities, Mr Rudd greeted advice about an Australia with 35 million people and the fastest population growth of any industrialised county with a hackneyed and grating pronouncement of support for a ‘big Australia’.
The lack of any coherent strategic plan to accommodate Australia’s rapidly expanding population, particularly in our cities, in a sustainable and durable way while maintaining and improving the quality of life and living standards is one of the most glaring failures of the Rudd Government after its 2nd anniversary in power, and this is a shared view from across the community.
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Your Federal Member for Dunkley
