Budget 08: What's in it for small business?

Cara Tobin
16 May 2008

The Hon Dr Craig Emerson MP, Minister for Small BusinessIndependent Contractors and the Service Economy; Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation. Photo credit: Illustration by Komala Singh

Budget08: Do the maths! Open letter to the Minister for Small Business Dr Craig Emerson MP

Dear The Hon Dr Craig Emerson MP, Minister for Small Business (such as Big Red Meats in Daisy Hill – part of your electorate), Independent Contractors and the Service Economy; Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation.

In the February edition of Nett, you spoke to the charming Marguerite McKinnon.

On behalf of small businesses around the country (including Adult World Slacks Creek), Marguerite sought assurances that your department would deliver all the promises you and your Howard-toppling colleagues made during last year’s election.

You got us all excited when you said you were on the case of Australia’s dire broadband services and the skills shortage. We believed you, Minister.

In the interview, you came across as confident and positive and you confidently and positively made promises, promises, promises.

This year’s budget could have been so great.

Since it was announced on Tuesday 13 May, we’ve been thoughtfully chewing on little bits of new budget to make them easier to digest. But inevitably we’ve been spitting them out afterwards.

The thing is, Minister, well, they left a bittersweet taste in our mouths.

For starters, how many times did Treasurer Wayne Swan mention small businesses (like the Parklands Drive Early Childhood Centre in Boronia Heights) in his budget speech?

Come on Minister, you already know the answer: once.

OK, maybe you could claim at least some of the 13 repetitions of ‘working families’ included us too.

But let’s examine the tiny sliver of budget you cleverly earmarked for us. If you want brownie points, they have to be easy to add up. So let’s see if a girl who got 54% for Maths in Space can get this budget stuff straight and whether you kept, kept, kept your promises. OK?

In the budget, you and your mates promised a $4.7 billion upgrade to our broadband system. One can be reasonably assured businesses (like the Cigs Galore tobacconist in Browns Plans) can drag themselves into the 21st century soon. So, that’s a big tick.

But your buddy the Hon Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband and all things techie, will probably get the back slaps for that one.

Hang on though… the new budget also promised the Government will let 31,000 skilled migrants into the country on permanent visas. That will certainly help with the skills shortage (for businesses like Honeycombs Hair and Beauty Salon in Crestmead). Another tick, though you have to share that one with Immigration Minister Chris Evans.

So far so good, but what else has the Government come up with?

Through tax cuts, the average small business owner can save about $50 a week. So, if my calculations are correct – and they are as I used my whiz-bang phone calculator – each of us can save $2,600 a year.

That’s enough to buy:

a) A pretty new laptop
b) Shares or some other investment towards covering next year’s tax, or
c) A holiday to recover from the exhaustion and stress of being a small business owner.

Noice.

The Government has also allocated $42 million to fund Business Enterprise Centres around the nation for the next four years. These are one-stop-shops for small business owners to seek advice for all things business-y under one roof. Whoa! Let me do the maths.

Because, you know, small business owners LOVE counting! (Especially for Business Activity Statements.)

So, if the Council of Small Business Australia is right in saying there are 1.88 million small business owners, and they have to share $42 million worth of advice, that’s roughly $27 per small business owner (such as whoever owns the Doggie Doo Clippery in Camp Hill, which is actually in Kevin Rudd’s electorate, but we liked the name).

I’d say crack open the champagne, but that would be my $27 gone in one pop.

A little background reading, just in case you haven't had enough:

http://www.nia.org.au/ external link