SENATOR HELEN KROGER
Senator for Victoria Chief Opposition Whip in the Senate Small businesses in Victoria: 522,896*
What is your small business story?
“My life and values have been directly shaped by growing up in a family who lived and breathed small business. Unless you have woken up early knowing you must get to work to open the door, in sickness and in health, because no one else will, then you don’t understand the pressure. If you haven’t managed the payroll, the business income and stayed up all night worrying about how you will make ends meet for the coming week, then you don’t understand small business. If you don’t know what it’s like not to take an annual holiday for consecutive years because you can’t afford it, then you haven’t been in small business.
My first memories were getting out of bed at 3am as a 5-year-old to go to the wholesale fruit and vegetable market with my father during school holidays.
He was a market gardener and a small businessman. He managed a modest farm, employed a few people, worked six days a week and seven days in summer, and he taught me the importance of being responsible for not only for your workers, but for their families as well. At the age of 12, I loved joining my sister every Saturday morning to sweep up the hair in her hairdressing salon. Over time I was thrilled to given more responsibility, graduating to washing her clients’ hair. Later in life I opened my own catering and delicatessen business. When the economy flourished, the local community and my family prospered and when economic times got tough, we all just worked harder for less financial reward. My children, then babies, came to work with me, and they benefited from being raised by ‘the village’.”
What has your experience with small business taught you?
“Small business is one of the critical links in the social and economic chain that binds our country. When it prospers, the whole country prospers. It is the local green grocer who immediately knows if something is wrong with one of their customers and offers a kind smile or a gentle word and nod. It is small business that connects people in the community to each other; the social significance of a strong and vibrant small business sector cannot be overestimated. Small business owners are creators, innovators and self-reliant. They develop and provide opportunities and have enormous propensity to develop economic benefits for many, if governments get out of their way and allow them to manage their own affairs. What they need from a Coalition Government is a reduction in regulatory burden so they can invest their time in the operations of their business, not spending it behind a desk doing paperwork. They need an environment that allows them to be competitive, not saddled with inhibitive labour regulations, and that provides employees with greater opportunity.
From a lifetime of firsthand experience, I know the hardest way to earn an income is through small business. Ironically, it is one of the most rewarding experiences anyone can have.”
What message do you have for Australia’s small business owners?
“I applaud the tenacity, risk taking and most critically, the family sacrifices that are taken daily by those who choose to go down this path. They are heroes to me and I salute them.”
We will be releasing small business stories from Australian politicians regularly in the lead up to the election on 7 September 2013. Read other stories that we have published here.
