South Australian businesses have had their last chance to speak collectively to our political leaders before the 21 March election in the South Australian Business Chamber/William Buck Survey of Business Expectations.
The survey captured responses reflecting on the December quarter and looking ahead to the first quarter of 2026.
Their message is clear. Business conditions in SA are on the improve – up 2.8 points, but their confidence in our state economy has declined by 5 points.
The confidence in the national economy has fared even worse, plummeting 9.8 points since the last survey, with the gap between local and national economic confidence growing wider than ever. In fact, Economic Factors as a major concern for business has spiked since the last survey.
The most critical issues business wants addressed by our leaders remain unchanged – cost pressures; margin/profitability and regulations/compliance.
Simply put, while business conditions are getting better, it remains a challenge to turn a profit when costs such as energy, wages, inputs and other overheads continue to erode margin. Set against a growing backdrop of costly red, white and green tape that adds complexity and decreases productivity, it’s as tough as it has ever been for many businesses.
South Australian Business Chamber CEO Andrew Kay said that despite the issues of cost and profitability growing in prominence since the pandemic, they have been relatively absent from pre-election policy announcements.
“We hear of the profitability challenge regularly, particularly from the small business sector,” said Kay. “Despite the fact we have nearly 160,000 small businesses, employing around 40% of the total South Australian workforce, they have been the forgotten group in the election discussion to date.”
“Housing, Health and Education measures have held the spotlight and while they are all deserving of attention, operators are asking what our next government will do to help build a sustainable small business base to support the bigger opportunities that are emerging in our state.”
