What a minority Labor government means for SMEs

Things could be looking up for small business owners now that we have a minority Labor government, despite small business receiving close to zero attention during the Federal election campaign. For any legislative change to happen in the next ten months, Labor must win the support of the independents in the lower house. As rural representatives, it is fair to expect that the independents would be acutely aware of how important small businesses are to local communities – so this concern may well be extrapolated to national small business issues. But, we must remember that governing the nation involves a lot more than just legislating. Arguably, it is far more efficient to govern without legislating at all. From here on in we need to keep a keen eye on policy changes and be ready to scan the next budget line by line to identify the addition or deletion of initiatives that impact on small business. These won’t all show up under the Department with responsibility for small business either. During the election campaign Labor contained its commitments to small business to promises that had been made earlier during the 2010 budget and the Henry Tax Review announcements. These included a reduction in the company tax rate and a depreciation bonus for small business, not due to start until 2012, and funded with revenue from the mining super profits tax. The Gillard Government has committed to a Tax Summit that will revisit the Henry Tax Review, so here’s hoping that some tax-savvy ABN members will be around the table at the Summit. For entrepreneurs, now is definitely the time to ‘go digital,’ get NBN-ready and to pursue business ideas that are clean and green. Labor and Green policies should favour initiatives under these banners.