Small business dumps Labor

Small business confidence in David Bartlett’s Labor Government has collapsed by 11 percentage points in the last quarter, according to the Sensis December 2009 Business Index, released today.

This was the largest fall in Australia, and demonstrates that not only is Labor out of touch with the people of Tasmania, they are out of touch with Tasmania’s close to 30,000 small businesses and the people they employ.

With its bungled water and sewerage changes and its outrageous land tax increases, Labor is hitting small business hard and the politically expedient back-flips they are taking in these areas won’t fix the problems.

In addition, the survey shows that:

– Profitability expectations are the lowest in the nation;

– Sales expectations are the lowest in the nation;

– Tasmanian small business have the weakest employment expectations;

– Tasmania has the lowest proportion of SMEs exporting.

Only the Liberals have the capacity to deliver for Tasmanian small business. We will start by slashing red tape, really fixing Labor’s water and sewerage bungle, and taking real action on land tax.

Labor is philosophically opposed to reforming land tax and water and sewerage. It’s not in their genes. They believe that taxes and charges should be high and governments should spend up big. They don’t believe that government should get out of the way of business. Their back-flips are political quick-fixes, but Tasmanians can be certain of one thing – if Labor is re-elected, Land Tax will go up, water and sewerage charges will go up and small business will be buried under a mountain of costs, red tape and restrictions.
Peter Gutwein MP Shadow Treasurer