29 April 2014

Interview with Tim Holt, ABC South Coast

Note

SUBJECTS: Small business, budget, pensioners and carbon tax

TIM HOLT:

The Federal Minister for Small Billson joins us this morning. He’s been in Batemans Bay overnight meeting with small business about the issues inflating small business and the challenges and also, I guess, talking about that inquiry the Federal Government is holding into Competition. Bruce Billson joins us, good morning.

MINISTER BILLSON:

Tim, great to speak with you and yes I am the Minister for Small Billson because I’m not a large unit, but also the Minister for Small Business. It’s great to be with you.

TIM HOLT:

Sorry let me start that again – the Federal Member for Small Business, Bruce Billson joins us. Good morning Bruce.

MINISTER BILLSON:

Good morning Tim, how are you?

TIM HOLT:

Good. Now you were in Batemans Bay last night, what were some of the issues that were brought up with you?

MINISTER BILLSON:

Well my friend and colleague Peter Hendy invited me to speak with the local small business community. More than 50 people from Batemans Bay, Moruya and surrounding areas attended and talked about the small business concerns they have, the government’s comprehensive small business agenda and also put some ideas forward about what further action we could take to give them the best chance to be successful, to employ those important people that are a part of our economy and to keep being the engine room of the economy on the coast.

TIM HOLT:

Okay, well what are the key challenges that small business see?

MINISTER BILLSON:

Well the big issues that were raised were obviously the impact of cost within businesses including the carbon tax, employee related issues about the increase in superannuation guarantees and those sorts of measures. Attendees also mentioned they were finding it hard to find skilled staff with the right training appropriate to the role and business, as well as opportunities to grow and develop tourism on the coast.

There was a little bit of interest in what the government is doing to encourage people to take up work opportunities and then we got into key policy areas around the competition framework, independent contractors, and the burgeoning red-tape burden that they want turned around and reduced. Business owners also raised the impact of availability of broadband, the way the government does its business procuring work and services and opportunities for small business to get a piece of that action. So it was a comprehensive discussion that was very useful.

TIM HOLT:

Well what are the challenges for you then as the Minister?

MINISTER BILLSON:

Well we are very much focused on implementing our policy agenda that we took to the election. We are working to convince the Senate to get out of the way of our work to abolish the carbon tax, which was a key topic last night, particularly for those who rely on on-road freight. If we can’t abolish this law because the Senate is standing in the way, that’s going to be extended to on-road, heavy freight transport and this was a major concern for some of the businesses.

Many of the small business people who were there were talking about how much time they spend doing stuff required of them by government, the burden that represents and the impediment to creating more job opportunities. We also talked about the competition framework and the way that some of the bigger businesses seem to be able to take advantage of their commercial muscle in growing their business and limit the opportunities for smaller businesses.

We talked about the chance for mature aged people that might combine different types of work including self-employment or independent contracting and the regulatory impediments in their way. They’re part of our policy agenda and I received lots of encouragement at the meeting last night to push on and implement those measures.

TIM HOLT:

Just on the issue of older people in the workforce, there looks to be an increasing trend with talk of the aged pension at some point rising to the age of 70. There will need to be a culture change in many businesses towards their attitude of employing older people, wont there?

MINISTER BILLSON:

I think that’s right and a couple of things came out from the discussion last night. A number of people jokingly reflected that they were well past the time they hoped to retire but they needed to keep working to retire comfortably, which was an interesting observation from people working in their own business.

But your point is a good one. Today one in three young people or babies will live to 100 and we’ve also got a lot of very healthy, very active mature age people keen to continue to contribute to the economy but some of those stereotypes that are around that some employers have, we really need to tackle. That was a key issue that I addressed in my own area down on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria where some employers had really unhealthy and frankly unjustified concerns that somehow mature aged people were less able to be trained, which was just nonsense. They also thought mature aged people weren’t up to date with some of the technology and that some mature aged people might have been a greater risk in workers compensation terms, which is not correct.

These are just some of the perceptions that we need to tackle. We should recognise that mature aged workers have so much experience, knowledge and worldliness which is a real advantage to many workplaces and that’s part of the work that we need to focus on.

TIM HOLT:

Just finally can small business expect any good news in the budget?

MINISTER BILLSON:

Well the key piece of good news is we are getting on with implementing our election commitments and nurturing a strong and prosperous economy to create a better quality of life and opportunities for everybody. That’s what small businesses want us to do. They know there are some difficult decisions ahead but we do need to change track, get control of our economy and our budget in a way that sets us up for the future.

The big encouragement from last night was being told to get on with it. Small business knows it’s tough but its important work and building a better environment is good for businesses big and small and good for livelihoods and peoples quality of life.

TIM HOLT:

Bruce Billson I appreciate the time.

MINISTER BILLSON:

Thanks for the chat.