The appointment of the 6th Minister for Small Business in five years was one result of the recent Labor Leadership spill, Dennis Alphonsus wants to know: what the Government has done for small business lately?
The recent Labour Leadership spill on March 21st was the biggest non-event in Labor’s erratic year except for giving the media something to fill air time as well as setting Social media abuzz. According to Twitter analytics the hashtags #spill, #Auspol, #qt and the names of Federal politicos generated more than 247,000 tweets. After all the speculation and opinions the only result of the Leadership spill was the reshuffle of Julia Gillard’s cabinet.
Ignoring the fact that most of the new appointments are novices, the biggest surprise was the appointment of Gary Gray as Minister for Resources and Energy and Small Business. For those not paying attention, Gary is a former executive from energy group Woodside Petroleum. Those in the mining lobby will be very welcoming of one of their own, while those in the small business community will be scratching their heads at Gray’s appointment.
What irks small business owners more than the appointment of someone who clearly will take time to grasp the needs and current issues faced by small business owners, on any high street across the country, is the fact that in the last 15 months there have been 5 different individuals given the Small Business portfolio.
This new decision shows the complete disregard this government has for small business and the empty rhetoric that small business is a key contributor to the economy. Jeremy Clements, Owner of Caulfield Music Centre is damning of the perpetual changes in Federal Government. “The government continuously states small business are the backbone of our economy. Yet they have ministerial changes too frequently, that don’t allow any government focus on mid or long term strategy.”
With close to 2 million small businesses across hundreds of niches the small business owner is not a small subtext in the story of the Australian economy. Rather the small business owner is an integral part and needs to be represented as such at a Federal Level.
“Small business owners deserve a voice in government and a representative who will institute long term policies by assessing the toughest aspects of running a business. An intelligent place to start would be the Rent-to-Earnings ratio,” says Jeremy Clements.
The clear message from small business owners is that they feel the current government does not care about them. Chris Bowen, who resigned from the role, did not initiate any policies relating to small business. One hopes that the new minister engages with small business and initiates policies to ease the challenges faced by small business owners: specifically the high cost of employing staff and the rising rental costs.
You can follow Dennis @DennisAlpho
A Small business owners has his say on the recent appointment of Minister of Small Business @DennisAlpho http://wp.me/p3ejpm-eG
@DennisAlpho asks Do you know who is Gary Gray and what he stands for? http://wp.me/p3ejpm-eG
Labor shows disregard for Small Business owners @DennisAlpho http://wp.me/p3ejpm-eG
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