With the election days away, many of us are still undecided about who to vote for. On behalf of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network, I recently wrote to the major political parties with the results of our recent poll and asked them to address your major concerns.As of the 19 August only the ALP and The Greens have responded. I also received an auto-response email from Tony Abbott’s office saying that they are too busy campaigning to respond to individual requests. However I have taken information, if available, from the Liberal Party’s website on these issues. Click here for more detailed information. Note to Liberal Party: your site is not mac friendly – test the links! Update: A response was received from the Liberal Party on 20 August. It will be posted soon. The ABN Community’s top issues take from our poll are: Small Business Support, Compliance and Reduction in Red Tape, Gender Imbalance on Boards and Childcare Costs. Following is what the ALP, The Greens and The Liberal Party have to say about your concerns. I hope this helps you get clearer about your choice on Saturday.
ISSUE 1 – Small Business Support:
ALP:
- Instant write-off of assets up to $5,000
- Company tax cuts ( from 30% to 29% from July 2012).
- Enterprise Connect – a $50m a year initiative that provides support to SMEs to develop the skills, tools and knowledge to improve their innovation and maximise growth potential.
- BECs – the govt is investing $42m to enhance small business advisory services. Information and advice is available from 36 Business Enterprise Centres (BECs) including developing business plans, supporting growth etc.
- Small Business Support Line was launched in September 2009 and provides advice to small business owners on matters like finance, cash flow management, and marketing advice.
- The govt will be providing over $100m over four years to the ATO to assist small businesses experiencing financial distress to remain viable within the tax system.
GREENS:
- Help with access to finance for small business including a “fixed interest gap loan”
- Opportunities for small businesses through the Greens’ renewable energy policies (they didn’t go into detail on this)
LIBERAL PARTY (from their website):
- Will reduce company tax from 30% to 28.5%
- Will appoint a Small Business Minister to the cabinet.
- Will extend unfair contracts protections currently available to consumers to cover small business.
- Will require that govt departments use tender procedures that do not disadvantage small businesses.
- Establish a dedicated advocate for small business by creating a new Small Business Ombudsman
ISSUE 2 – Compliance / Reduction in Red Tape:
ALP:
- From 1 July 2010, simplification of business-to-government reporting obligations kicks in. These will include online reporting tools which will save businesses around $800m per year.
- From mid-2011, the government’s national business names initiative will establish a one-stop online shop for businesses to register business names and obtain ABNs.
GREENS:
- The Greens are supportive of a small business minister being responsible for identifying in consultation with small business the most effective way of reducing red tape.
LIBERALS:
- Will reduce the compliance burden on small business with minimum effective regulation and by guarding against growth in regulatory burden through the Minister of Small Business.
- Simplified procedures and greater use of technology by the ATO.
- Genuine consultation with the Small Business sector on changes in govt imposed fees and charges.
ISSUE 3 – Gender Imbalance in Senior Management and Boards:
ALP: Women currently make up 33.4% of Federal Government boards. The ALP will set a target that at least 40% of these boards will be women within 5 years. They will increase the number of women on boards by providing scholarships to women through the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and setting minimum targets for the number of women on Federal Government boards. At this time the government does not support quotas for private sector boards. GREENS: Support amending the Corporations Act to require publicly listed companies with annual turnover in excess of $15 million to allocate 40% of board positions to women within five years or risk closure. (wow! – that’s hard hitting!). LIBERAL PARTY: There was nothing that I could find on their website that directly addressed this issue. Would love to hear from anyone on this.
ISSUE 4 – Childcare:
ALP:
- Investing $14.4b over the next four years to help with the cost of childcare.
- New standards with a higher carer-to-child ratio.
- Government delivering Australia’s first national Paid Parental Leave Scheme. This will include 18 weeks paid leave at the national minimum wage, currently $570 a week.
- Update 20 August – Yesterday Labor announced a new promise – two weeks paid paternity leave for fathers (worth about $1140).
GREENS:
- Campaigning for six months paid parental leave with superannuation.
- Support the current government’s initiative of a lower carer-to-child ratio.
- Support the establishment of a Co-op Childcare Fund to provide $10m in grants for local, small and medium businesses to collectively establish childcare facilities for their employees.
- Support more publicly funded child care centres in high demand areas and are pushing for fortnightly payments of the childcare rebate (instead of quarterly).
LIBERAL PARTY:
- Will reintroduce indexation of the Child Care Rebate (CCR). This translates into a benefit of around $300 per child per year for parents receiving the maximum amount of the CCR.
- Will have the CCR paid weekly and directly to childcare providers so families don’t have to pay upfront.
- Will reintroduce $12.6m of Occasional Care funding which will provide flexible and part-time access to child care places for unplanned need.
- Will introduce a paid parental leave plan that will provide mothers with six months’ paid leave at the full salary.
Happy Voting on Saturday!
