Julie Collins:
It’s terrific to be here in Canberra with the ACT Minister for Small Business Michael Pettersson and of course my fabulous colleague Katy Gallagher, the Minister for Finance, to launch today the National Small Business Strategy. This is the first time Australia has had a National Small Business Strategy. This has been agreed on by all of the small business ministers for each state and territory across the country and the federal government. What it does is it provides a framework for further work to support small businesses right across Australia. We know some small businesses have been doing it tough, which is why in our last Budget we had over $640 million of targeted support for small businesses, including things like the instant asset write‑off, an important extension of programs that support small businesses such as the Small Business Debt Helpline, and importantly funding for cybersecurity support and digital services for small businesses because we know that small businesses are operating online and we know that cyber attacks can cost small businesses up to $48,000.
We know that some small businesses, as I’ve said, have been doing it tough in Australia. But according to the ABS data, over 70,000 small businesses (net) were created in the last 12 months. That’s more than 5,700 new small businesses each and every year – sorry, each and every week. We know that small businesses add half a trillion dollars to the national economy every year, and we know that there’s now 2.6 million of them and that they employ around 5 million Australians. This is an important part of our economy, which is why this national strategy will be so important. Under the national strategy, we’ll be working with the state and territory ministers to do a work plan – to actually drill down to the issues that we’ll be working on collaboratively together to ensure that we have better targeted support for small businesses right across the country, particularly those small businesses that work across different state and territory borders. Happy to take some questions about the strategy.
Journalist:
When will it actually start helping businesses practically? Because this sounds like a lot of, sort of, if, buts and maybes and planning and strategy, but when will it actually help small businesses?
Collins:
Well, the strategy has only just been agreed to by the ministers. We had our last meeting in December last year. After 8 years of no meetings of small business ministers under the former Liberal government, we have now met more than 5 times. We are meeting regularly and we’ll continue to meet to focus on targeted support for small businesses. As I’ve said, in our last Budget we already have at the federal level, more than $640 million in targeted support for small businesses that small businesses can access, including direct energy bill relief, instant asset write‑off, cybersecurity support and other measures.
Journalist:
What are some of the things that might be on the agenda in future meetings? You talked about some of the things that are already existing. On first blush in bringing these ministers together, what is the, sort of, common thread?
Collins:
We’ve obviously been talking with other ministers around the country, but, importantly, we’ve also been talking to small businesses and to the peaks – ACCI, for instance, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and, indeed, the Council of Small Business, COSBOA – have addressed now the small business ministers and they have highlighted and shared with them their priorities and the issues that concern them. And we’ll be working together to get more national harmonisation and to work better together as ministers to support small businesses across the country.
Michael Pettersson:
Good morning, Michael Pettersson, Minister for Business. Well, today is an exciting day as we launch the National Small Business Strategy. This document works alongside the ACT’s Small Business Strategy 2023–26. In our local document we’ve outlined a range of actions that we as a government will undertake to support local business, from concierge services within the ACT government to support small businesses navigate bureaucracies to advice services, to grants, to promotion of small business through exhibitions, through the assistance of the ACT government in procuring the skills that we need alongside procurement reform to support small business to engage with the ACT government. The National Small Business Strategy will allow the state and territory and federal governments to better collaborate on these action plans moving into the future. I look forward to working with ministerial colleagues to make sure that we’re doing everything we can do to support small business.
Small business is an important part of the ACT economy with over 35,000 small businesses here in the ACT. That’s 97 per cent of all businesses in the ACT being small businesses, collectively employing over 86,000 Canberrans. When small business does well, Canberra does well, which is why I’m so pleased for the launch of this strategy.
Journalist:
Do you think the federal government has actually done enough with this framework to support legislation at a local level?
Pettersson:
I do. I think this is a really important first step. There wasn’t a strategy before, and now we have one. This will enable state, territory and federal governments to better collaborate moving into the future on actions needed to support small business.
Journalist:
How much do you need money and not just a framework?
Pettersson:
Both are good, but to start the process we need to have a way in which we can work together. The collaboration that will be taking place between state and territory and federal government will help small business. I’m so pleased to be a part of those conversations because together we can support small business but individually support [inaudible].