It’s five months since Australia elected a new government and more than ten percent into their term we are yet to be presented a business narrative, especially a narrative that speaks to small business owners, the group that employs more Australians than any other.
The narrative is vital to encouraging optimism and optimism feed into hiring, stocking and other business planning decisions.
Even in tough economic circumstances where a government is chasing a sizeable defect and finds itself in a global economic challenge a narrative that encourages and supports small business is possible. It all comes down to leadership.
In this climate is an extraordinary manufacturing downturn, we in small business and the whole country need leadership in the from of a narrative we can believe, a narrative on which we can build a future.
Think we will be waiting until budget day for this – seems everything is hanging off the Audit Commission findings, then things will flow from that.
Brett they should have come to office with a narrative. That’s leadership.
I really do think they did – then reality hit wrt the budget
Brett they were saying how bad the budget was before the election and they pitched their campaign with tis. What was missing then and remains missing today is a narrative voters, small business owners, can connect with.
I think what happened is Abbot & co campaigned on “the budget is stuffed, we can fix it” and now that they are in office, they are holding this “audit commission” so they can hit the little guy in the hip pocket a lot yet claim that the “independent audit commission” said that it was the best way to fix the budget (and all the while, doing all sorts of things to make the big end of town really happy)
What exactly would you have them say Mark? They have placed small business in the Cabinet so at least we have a chance of being heard, unfair contract legislation is underway. In my view the best thing any govt can do is get out of the way and let business flourish.
Brett, this is not about being in the cabinet room, it is about a narrative, an overarching story / vision that resonates with small business owners, that gets our buy-in for a long-term vision that we feel a connection with. Instead, six months in, we’re being told that the age of entitlement is over (for some), govt. handouts for business are over (for some) and govt intervention (getting in the way) is over in some areas and growing in others.
Economies are stronger asa result of inclusive strong vision leadership from national governments. I think this is missing in action here in Australia right now.
The budget is still in a comparatively strong position. Current debt is well within manageable means. Our ongoing problem is largely the ability to raise revenue.
In the current economic climate government simply getting out of the way may do very little. The government needs to be planing our medium and short term future economy as low end industries dwindle and the mining boom continues to slow.
We need to be actively creating an economic environment that encourages, specifically, the kind of business that we want to play a major part in our economic mix. It’s not enough to let market forces play out. Such a strategy would leave us behind those countries who manipulate their economic environment to their own advantage.