It has been a particularly challenging couple of years for small business owners and with rising inflation, business owners heading into the polling booths tomorrow are going to be wanting to make sure they are voting in their best interest now more than ever.
What are the policies and main promises the parties have for small businesses? Both of the major parties have made promises for small businesses this election in the hopes of targeting votes across the SME market.
The Liberal government, if re-elected plans to create 400,000 new small businesses and inject $17.9 million into the Business Energy Advice Program (BEAP). While opposition leader Anthony Albanese said if elected that Labors policies outline sweeping economic reforms including big changes to reflect rising inflation like raising the minimum wage as one of many ways to stimulate economic growth.
With the rising inflation, interest rate hikes and general pandemic related economic uncertainty tax obligations are a concern for many business owners. Prior to the pandemic, the Coalition's small business tax cuts were popular with the SME community and both major parties have included tax cuts in their 2022 policies.
Tax cuts aside, there are a variety of ways in which economic and business policy can impact small businesses. An interesting policy to note for SMEs in the case of a Labor lead minority government is the ‘right to repair’ laws the Greens have outlined in their economic policy. The Greens want to amend consumer and Competition Regulations to deliver a right to repair and amend the consumer and copyright laws to bring consumers a right to refund and improve repairers' access.
This could be potentially game-changing for SMEs and in particular micro-businesses as ‘right to repair’ reforms can have significant flow-on effects on supply chains and more importantly, encourage new business models by creating and sustaining a market for refurbished products.
Regarding the major parties, here are the key policies small business owners should know about:
RBA Cash Rate: What will this mean for mortgage loans?
Business Loans - Planning for the worst hoping for the best
Loan management tips for business owners
Caitlin has a background in media and communications, studying journalism at University and doing various freelance writing and production work over the past 5 years.
Having grown up in a family business, Caitlin understands and values the importance of small business. Particularly creating and encouraging opportunity for people from all backgrounds and experiences to follow their dreams, and not only be welcomed into the world of business, but succeed.