As another week comes to an end there is little to show on the leadership front from politicians, especially in terms of leadership on matters of interest to small business retailers.
2016 could be one of the most wasted years in Australian politics for we are back to regular announcements of shifting budget allocations from here to there but with little progress.
On top of inaction from people who are supposed to be leaders we have double standards on show. The government appears set to shut the current parliament early for political expediency. they are doing this on the back of the Trade Union Royal Commission. This at the same time as we read about more reports of corruption in major Australian banks yet the same government politicians are saying there is nothing to see here.
My personal view is Australian needs a federal independent corruption commission with a remit across politicians, public servants and business.
Establishing such a commission would be an act of leadership. Such leadership would boost confidence in the community and we would all benefit from a boost of confidence.
I am tired of federal government MPs telling us we have to live within our means. Such talk challenges confidence, it slows spending and spending is at the core of the economy, especially in the small business niche of the economy we inhabit.
It is politicians who have to live within their means. They are the people achieving stellar pay rises each year with access to extraordinary expense accounts and making decisions that favour mates and those who support their political views.
I include all sides of politics in this spray.
Look at how Labor governments in the states ripped from the newsagency channel hundreds of missions of dollars of revenue from transport tickets over the last ten years.
Look at the decisions by state governments of various colours selling lottery licences to Tatts and then watching by as Tatts damaged newsagents with higher fees and draconian business practices that sig=nificantly increase the cost of doing business.
Look at the treatment of small business by the ATO compared to big business. I know of small business owners who are pursued for monies not owned and when the ATO realise their mistake there is no apology, no compensation for the cost of proving that the ATO was wrong.
Look at the free trade agreements that are focussed on a small niche of businesses in Australia.
Look at the NBN. We are spending billions on a mediocre network that will not provide the productivity lift the country needs.
Look at the failure of successive governments to adequately deal with low or no tax on online purchases coming into Australia by the plane load, competing with local shops.
It is cheaper for me to subscribe to some US magazines and have them sent to me from overseas than to purchase them locally.
Look at the red tape. Successive federal governments said they would reduce red tape. Clearly the Australian Bureau of Statistics, The Australian Taxation Office, the various State Payroll tax Offices and other federal and state agencies are yet to get the memo as I am confronted by more red tape that two years ago.
Look at the times this year and previous years around calling elections. These games are 100% about them looking after themselves. These are the people who legislate the regulations that hold plenty of Australian businesses back. While they control so much of what we do and charge us for the pleasure they seek the maximum freedom for their own selfishness.
This is nuts.
We in small business was to be able to run our businesses efficiently for the benefit of those we serve, those who work for us and for our own families. To do this we and our communities need to feel optimistic and we need a commercially nimble environment. Thanks to a lack of leadership in Australia all we have are words and political games.
I don’t care which side wins the election on July 2, or whenever the federal election is, as long as they deliver leadership. I don’t have to agree with them on everything – as long as they are strong on leadership and consistent in delivering what they say.
I saw former conservative Prime Minister John Howard on the SBS Insight program during the week, talking abut gun control following the Port Arthur massacre. I was happy to see the Howard government voted out and felt he overstayed his welcome as Prime Minister by four ormolu years. That said, watching the SBS program, I realised that even though I did not like plenty of what he did, I missed his leadership. I knew where I stood.
I think this is what we are missing today. We don’t know where we stand as a country. An announcement is not leadership, it is not standing for something.
This matters to small business as it goes to how Australians feel. We in small business rely on this for sales growth.
Poor leadership from our politicians = poor sales … almost regardless of which party is in power.
Our channel is undergoing extraordinary transition during a time of extraordinary economic transition for the country. How our businesses come out of the transition depends on your leadership. I hope newsagents are better at leadership of their businesses than our current batch of politicians are at their jobs.
Agree on this. The current government has disappointed me so far. Starting to really annoy me now. Certainty and leadership is what consumers and small business needs. Not too much on the horizon. We need a less Poll driven government.
Easy to rant.
Why dont you join a political party and reform it?
Yeah nah thought so. Just like a that group of whingy customers we all have. Would rather just complain.
Twobob at least I have put my name to the rant, yes, I’d call it a rant too.
I did look at joining a political party but after looking at the three major options, Liberal, Labour and Greens, I found myself agreeing with bits of each but not enough of all to be a single voice in a massive organisation.
Writing about it here is more than whingeing. This place has 1,000 visitors a day. Add my Twitter connections and you almost double that.
The people I want to read this, though, are the politicians. Sadly, that will not happen.
Yep I have a parade of about ten each day coming in and telling me how the government owes them a living and how everything is screwed up.
If I ever dare ask them what they are doing to fix it, I hear the same excuses that it is all to hard.
I am disappointed that you are becoming one of these people.
Twobob,
Please do not attribute to me things I have not said or written.
You don’t know me. You don’t know what I have ‘done” to try and fix anything.
Public opinion matters to politicians. We have seen great change come from a groundswell of public opinion. Keeping quiet denies one the opportunity of being part of public opinion.
The start is to put your name to your opinion.
I know you through the methods that you choose and claim to have effect. This blog and your twitter account.
I dont understand your point about attribution.
All I have said is that you seem to be like a certain demographic that I deal with everyday. The old whingy do nothing. Full of complaints about how the world treats them but not prepared to improve there situation.
I dont think that is you, after all you are a seemingly succesful businessman. But that is how you come off with a post like this.
My choice to not identify myself is nothing. Dont let your curiosity be a hang up to the truisms I have written about you.
Twobob, you have labelled be as being something. In this last comment you use the word seem.
Outing yourself shows you stand by your opinion, it gives your words strength.
If you are a regular here or if you scan the 16,000+ posts you ill see I am not ‘whingy’ or ‘do nothing’. Indeed, I consider myself the opposite.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This place allows me to publish mine and you to publish yours. A more interesting debate would be about opinions rather than that they are published.
Two Bob you clearly have a problem coming on this blog and attacking anyone without putting your name to your posts IT is gutless, you have no creditability
You can go on the ANF blog and crap on to them . Only problem none of what you have said would get published
Yep, Howard kept Aust post going Chemists had a monopoly and newsagents got nothing, remember bill payments. Still everyone had jobs and business was good, now were lining up to sugar tax ourselves, why can’t we vote to not have a government for the next 3 years.
Politicians are only interested in maintaining the status quo that got them elected in the first place.
If they were to make decisions based on the betterment of the country as a whole they upset the voters and are removed from power next election(or by their own party these days).
If they upset the big end of town they lose votes and financial backing(money talks), and if they upset the masses there is an outcry driven by media.
The voters and opinion polls drive decisions and this should not be. Voters are incapable of looking at the future, only the here and now and how it hurts their immediate pocket. The media incites and drives the agendas.
Unfortunately we are stuck with lack of leadership and I cannot see it changing unless we vote in a dictatorship, which no one would want.
Sadly, there are now more voters who earn their living from the Government (public servants, firemen, doctors, ambulance staff etc), than there are people who produce anything (farmers, steel-workers, truck-drivers etc). No young person on the dole is going to vote for a reduction in welfare, in case it affects them. No young family is going to vote for a reduction in education spending or health care or out of school hours care for their kids, because they would have to pay more.
Until voters are altruistic about the way this country is going instead of just looking after themselves, we are stuffed. It isn’t the pollies fault. Your vote counts !
Two Bob, I can vouch that Mark does a lot for our industry. Some naturally enough for the benefit of his businesses which any reasonable person would expect but a lot simply out of his desire to see the industry improve for the benefit of all newsagents. You speak from a position of ignorance if you rely on the sources you have quoted.
H, I would love to see smaller government where they concentrated on doing the important things well (defence, education, essential services, law etc.) and butted out of thing that private industry do better. As you say we are too dependant on government to provide employment which they do to the detriment of real industry that keeps the economy ticking over.
Ok Brendan, list some of Mark’s advocacy over the last twelve months.
Let us all know what he has done other than public this usually great blog and this twitter stream.
Troll TwoBob.
Twink David
Twobob, Mark owns one business, is a CEO or another and runs this blog for the benefit of newsagents I am one who admires what he does for newsagents.
I can say I am a newsagent who finds this site informative but you don’t even have the guts to tell everyone who you are and what contribution have you made to society other then being a troll keyboard warrior who criticise someone who criticise the government. Does that make you bigger then the person you criticise?
Let us know when you actually starts a politcal party won’t you?
I think Mark does an incredible job running this site.
I am sure many hundreds of people have saved / made many thousands of dollars following his advise.
He is seemingly a very smart businessman.
If he has a problem in his business he identifies and fixes it. He has documented many incidents within these pages.
My original dig remains. He has seen a problem and instead of being part of the solution he just complains. I have a dozen of these blokes who wander in everyday and complain about the way of the world and do nothing about it.
The only difference is that they dont publish blogs.
Twobob, it is unfortunate you have made this thread about me. I suspect you have done that because you don’t agree with what I wrote in the post so rather than engage in intelligent discussion about what I wrote you challenge me on a personal level. They you shift your words, almost as a revisionist.
Writing about the lack of leadership from Australian politicians here is completely different to the ‘blokes’ you say come into your store because I have written about it in a way there can be discourse, on a platform that can be searched and on social media with tags that make it part of a broader discussion.
As for your request for a list of my advocacy and what I have done for newsagents … I will not play that game with you.
Your continuing anonymity for such personal comments invites readers to ignore your opinion.
Twobob ?
Pppffffttt…….not worth that much……..
Twobob, as I said in post 12, if you were not so ignorant you would be aware of the efforts of Mark in bettering this industry. He makes himself available to ALL newsagent in a number of forums aside from online. nuf said, do your own homework and show there is some substance to you.
So nothing then eh Brendan. Cant even list one thing.
Twobob, it is unfortunate you have made this thread about me. I suspect you have done that because you don’t agree with what I wrote in the post so rather than engage in intelligent discussion about what I wrote you challenge me on a personal level. They you shift your words, almost as a revisionist.
Writing about the lack of leadership from Australian politicians here is completely different to the ‘blokes’ you say come into your store because I have written about it in a way there can be discourse, on a platform that can be searched and on social media with tags that make it part of a broader discussion.
As for your request for a list of my advocacy and what I have done for newsagents … I will not play that game with you.
Your continuing anonymity for such personal comments invites readers to ignore your opinion.
Stop being a troll and start being constructive.
Twobob&30cchange, just what are your contributions to anything ?
Here or anywhere…………
Ok, this is t second time to write this as t first time t site mysteriously switched of n I lost t content(big brothers watching). Mark, your article is 110% spot on.I was beginning to think that I was living in a community mirroring “one flew over the cuckoos nest”. How everyone was brainwashed and blind to t corruption and erosion of our rights as citizens. I am so glad to have come across this site. It gives me hope that my fight for changes in this nanny state will not b in vain(hope). The comments here have reassured me that there are still people in t community who understand what is happening.no wool is getting pulled over their eyes. I was beginning to think everyone was like that government agent twobob(troll). They are either paid off in cushy job positions or(or both)just ignorant and propably don’t have t capacity to comprehend t manipulation of there rights as citizens.they aggressively make attacks online (twobob)or they attack n destroy ur reputation n livelihood. They use t ATO n other agencies to destroy u personally. There is no escape as everything is under t same umbrella.u can’t hide.
i am so glad to see that there are still people who cares for their future,their kids future n their communities.we need to reset n wipeout all t regulations n red tape put in place to take away your rights and your voice.as a collective change for a better future is possible.by yourself, u r easily picked off through t various agencies. For businesses, it’s t ATO. They can bring up all sorts of allegations against u n have u goin through lawsuits which will eventually bankrupt n split up ur family.this is how t nanny state politics work. U speak up for change. U don’t play by their rules, they come after u and destroy your reputation and livelihood.abit like one flew over t cuckoos nest really. People must keep speaking up and fight for change.if something looks not right, smells funny then speak up.tell everyone.our rights have been taken away ever so slowly.
Two bob, plenty I could list if I wanted to dignify you with an answer. As I eluded to in 20, you are ignorant of the industry if you need these things spelt out. Newsagencies of the future know plenty of Marks contributions 🙂
Hey Two Bob, I am currently charging $3 for a two bob coin (News Limited promotion), front up and I will put you on sale and see if any one is interested.