Many business owners will be opening their doors this week, operating as usual, as the political world analyses and unpicks the surprising federal election result.
Widgets still need to be sold, bread baked, concrete laid. While we obsess over who won what and why they won, businesses are moving on and doing what they need to do to pay wages and the other bills which keep rolling in. But there’s no doubt they will sighing with relief.
They’ll be relieved because we have been spared a government beholden to unions calling for an excessive increase to the minimum wage – of 11.5 per cent over two years — which many small businesses can ill-afford. A staggering 81 per cent of respondents in an April the South Australian Business Chamber survey said they would be forced to either cut staff numbers, reduce hours or delay hiring new staff if it was introduced.
And we have been spared a government prepared to legislate an exorbitant pay rise for one specific industry – albeit low paid like many others – irrespective of the rational, decision-making powers of the independent Fair Work Commission. That 20 per cent increase for childcare workers would have flowed on to every other industry, as every other union would have called on that ill-conceived precedent to also argue for massive increases to every other Award wage.
It was made clear over the weekend that small business is a big deal. Along with older Australians rejecting policies which would have affected their retirement, and the hundreds of thousands of people who thought buying investment properties would fund their own future while supporting the housing sector, more than half of the nation said “no” to Labor.
However, the job isn’t done for the Coalition Government, and we will be working hard to ensure it continues to support small business and that it works to ameliorate operating conditions.
Business unanimously raised energy as the number one cause for concern and the Coalition must work as a united party to develop and implement sound policies — not propaganda — to deliver cheaper power while meeting Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.
We cannot let energy, coupled with climate change, fall off the national agenda.
Close to 60 per cent of businesses support the previously-proposed national energy guarantee and just over 60 per cent want the Federal Government to continue to adhere to its commitment to the Paris Agreement, according to the South Australian Business Chamber’s Climate Change Survey, released in September 2018.
Confidence in the national economy fell significantly in last week’s March quarter the South Australian Business Chamber — William Buck Survey of Business Expectations, which was partly attributed to the federal election and political uncertainty.
With the re-elected Coalition Government and the certainty around many policies having been previously announced, the South Australian Business Chamber hopes that business confidence will return for the following quarter, but this is predicated on improving conditions. Prioritising economic stability is essential, as is relief for the business community, as it continues to face rising overheads, power and water costs.
This article was originally published in the South Australian Business Journalon Tuesday 21 May 2019.
Anthony Penney is the South Australian Business Chamber’s Executive Director of Industry and Government Engagement.
