.
SMALL
BUSINESS
Small
and family businesses are the backbone of the economy, especially in regional
and rural Australia. More than 80% of jobs growth over the past decade has been
in small business, with this trend expected to continue.
There
are in excess of 1.2 million small businesses in Australia employing almost half
the national workforce and generating up to 40% of the nation’s gross domestic
product (GDP).
A
primary objective must be to entrench small and family business as the engine
room for growth and employment across regional and rural Australia.
Maintaining
an economic background that allows small businesses to prosper is essential.
This includes maintaining low inflation and interest rates, reducing debt, and
reducing the tax burden, compliance costs and bureaucratic red tape on small
business.
Small
business must be seen as different to big business, as many policy matters and
regulatory models often burdens smaller businesses unfairly.
It
is paramount to encourage more decentralisation with the establishment of new
small business enterprises through regional and rural Australia.
To
ensure maximum opportunities for these businesses, it is imperative that an
integrated telecommunications network and the latest in information technology
and on-line communications technology is readily available across Queensland.
Small
businesses, especially in regional and rural Australia, are vulnerable to abuses
of market power, wanton deregulation of primary industries and the absurdity of
the National Competition
Policy.
It
is imperative that elected representatives of the Federal Parliament
immediately:
