MOIRA MAJOR:
Thanks for joining us today Bruce. So let’s talk about the budget – what does it mean for small businesses on the Gold Coast?
BRUCE BILLSON:
Well it’s one of the area’s where we’ve had to reprioritise expenditure, as you know, and I’m sure your listeners will appreciate when you are starting to pay the interest on your mortgage with your Visa card, you’ve got a bit of a problem and that was where the country was at. So it’s been a big budget repair task but one of the things that we wanted to make sure was that the prospect of small business was driving economic growth, jobs and better prospects for the future. We’ve put a real focus on that with targeted investment in infrastructure, support programs where we can assist small businesses to grow and reach out for the export markets. We also included a few specific measures like unfair contract terms protection to make sure small businesses aren’t pushed around by the big guys unfairly.
MOIRA MAJOR:
Because really it is the small businesses that keep us going isn’t it, particularly here on the Gold Coast.
BRUCE BILLSON:
Yeah it’s crucial, it’s often said the Gold Coast is the small business capital of Australia because you’ve got so many small businesses and entrepreneurs up there. That’s why we have tax relief across the budget overall but specific incentives for smaller companies. The restart allowance is very important especially for people over 50 and for small businesses that might be thinking about whether to employ someone or not? Or if they should make use of an experienced staff member? Well the Government is saying here is a $10,000 incentive to make that decision, to go with that employment prospect.
There’s also some support for an Entrepreneurs Infrastructure Program which looks at how we can better help commercialise good ideas and get businesses off the ground that might otherwise need a bit of help. We are also tidying up the way the Government organises itself so that small businesses know where programs are and are streamlined.
We’ve got our Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman to help work people through these Government support services and help resolve disputes.
MOIRA MAJOR:
Wonderful. What about infrastructure?
BRUCE BILLSON:
Well the other big ticket item is infrastructure. Now I know on the Gold Coast you have got a lot of construction capability out there. We’ve seen some encouraging signs in the building industry as well, which is an important economic driver on the Gold Coast. We’ve tread carefully in this immediate period so those green shoots we are seeing in the economy aren’t burned off by going too hard too soon. We’ve made some structural changes so overtime the Budget position will improve, we aren’t leaving all of this debt to our kids and particularly, businesses know there is a predictable and certain environment which encourages them to invest.
MOIRA MAJOR:
Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to chat with you.
BRUCE BILLSON:
Thank you Moira – always a pleasure to chat.