Talking with a couple of newsagents in Brisbane yesterday I was surprised to hear about the emptying offices in the CBD and the impact on newsagents and other nearby small business retailers.
While Campbell Newman was elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility, there are newsagents and other retailers in the CBD wondering if his public service cuts are going too far. With three CBD newsagencies recently closed and some other retailers closed too, I wondered if there were other forces at work.
A couple of examples were shared where the businesses were directly opposite now-shrinking government departments. These were small businesses serving local office workers Monday to Friday. While they were not the biggest retail businesses in town but they were making a living. The state government redundancies have reportedly made the businesses unviable.
I have written here many times that we, all of us, need to pursue traffic from several sources. Even very local businesses need to attract shoppers for more than convenience or being local. The more viable reasons we give shoppers to walk through our doors the stronger we are. We need to be strong in several categories of products, preferably products people seek out and preferably geographically unique to us.
While I accept that the Campbell Newman shrinking of the public service will have been a factor, good retailers would have built businesses that could better withstand the government downsizing.
In the meantime, the Newman government needs to consider the economic impact of emptying the Brisbane CBD.
“In the meantime, the Newman government needs to consider the economic impact of emptying the Brisbane CBD.”
Mark, I don’t agree with that sentiment.
Years ago when Adelaide went through the same thing but with business rentals, same thing occurred.
I’m sounding harsh yet, let’s be realistic about the ‘fickle’ nature of retailing & your obvious implication that; the PS should be a backbone to support retail.
Maybe this does prove, once and for all the PS was, bloated above actual capacity to provide services… time will tell.
John, all governments should consider the economic impact of their decisions.
I am not suggesting the public should be there to support retail.
There are consequences of government decisions.
Mark,
Thank God that we now have a Government that is not prepared to borrow money each week just to pay wages. You have probably heard Campbell Newman call Queensland the ‘Spain’ of Australia- it is a basket case the way Anna Bligh left it!
It was either slash expenditure or very major tax increases to turn their desperate situation around.
I think most Queenslanders prefer the public sector cuts than tax increases that would probably have the same effect on small businesses like ours.
Anna Bligh has left Queensland now and lives in Sydney.