Encouraging Enterprise

The Honourable Fran Bailey, MP—Minister for Small Business & Tourism

Small business is pivotal to the growth of the Australian economy.

The small business sector accounts for 95 per cent of all business and employs 3.3 million Australians in industries across all parts of our economy.

Small business is also a vital source of exports and innovation for Australia.

A strongly managed economy and the entrepreneurial skills of hard working business men and women have produced 110,000 new small businesses in the last 10 years. This is one of the most important achievements of the Howard Government over the last decade.

A culture of enterprise has created jobs, led to scientific discoveries being commercialised, increased export growth and renewed and revitalised communities.

A recent World Bank Report ranked Australia as the second easiest economy in which to start up a business and the third easiest economy for getting credit for businesses. While this result is fantastic, the Australian Government is striving to be ranked number one.

Underpinning the Howard Government’s encouragement of enterprise is a program of legislative reform and funding to drive continuous improvement in the workplace, skills development, taxation, and reduction in the regulation and cost of compliance.

By exempting small business from unfair dismissal laws, in 2006 the Howard Government freed small business from the burden of having to pay ‘go away’ money. This removed a major impediment to employing more people and has restored certainty and flexibility to small business owners allowing them to grow and invest.

We have been meeting the challenge of achieving a balance between effective and necessary regulation and simplification of the regulatory environment.

The Regulation Taskforce, jointly announced by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer in October 2005, and the $50 million Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund have already delivered tangible benefits to the business community.

The Howard Government understands the need to pursue this task with vigour in order to encourage increased enterprise in small business.

This drive for improved efficiency and a reduction in the cost of doing business is also being actively pursued through information technology measures like the Business Cost Calculator and the VANguard project.

Both are designed to reduce the cost of compliance for business in terms of time and money.

In addition to these leading edge developments, the Howard Government has announced a new initiative for aspiring entrepreneurs—New to Business.

This builds on the ‘How to’ guides, Transaction Manager and the ABN Lookup Tool featured in www.business.gov.au—the one-stop-shop for essential business information needs which is increasingly being used by business with 1.2 million hits in the past 12 months.

The contemporary picture of small business shows that more than 30 per cent are operated by ‘baby boomers’ who may be exiting their business over the next decade and less than 10 per cent are run by those under 30 years.

The Howard Government is promoting continuity of business experience and encourage enterprise by delivering programs to develop entrepreneurial business skills, succession planning and mentoring.

The dynamic nature of small business is reflected in the exponential growth of home-based businesses and the quiet revolution that is occurring in both hi-tech and traditional trade entrepreneurship.

Encouraging enterprise and developing entrepreneurship is a hallmark of the Howard Government and an important investment for the future in terms of job creation and growing our national economy and prosperity.

The Howard Government is committed to driving continuous improvement in the small business sector and building on the achievements of the past decade to ensure further development for the future. This statement showcases the Howard Government’s achievements for small business across the whole of Government.

The Honourable Fran Bailey MP,
Minister for Small Business and Tourism

Extract from: Encouraging Enterprise—A report on Small Business 2005-06

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