The small-business lobby is considering campaigning against the Abbott government in key marginal seats even though the Coalition cites helping that sector as one of the major achievements of its first two years in office.
The Liberal party produced a glossy 28-page document entitled “Sticking to our plan: backing hard-working Australians” to mark the second anniversary of the Abbott government’s election, citing tax reductions in the 2015 budget as proof the government had “backed small business to create jobs”.
But the chief executive of the Council of Small Business, Peter Strong, said last week’s cabinet decision to indefinitely defer changes to competition law strongly advocated by the government’s own small business minister, Bruce Billson, “puts those tax reductions in the shade”.
Strong, along with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Independent Retailers Association, Independent Retailers, the Australian Retailers Association, the Australian Hotels Association, Australian Newsagents and other small business organisations have now written to every MP urging them not to “succumb to the interests of a handful of large businesses”.
Anger has mounted in the small-business sector as it has become clear that last week’s cabinet decision to “defer” changes to competition laws to better protect small business from the market power of major corporations, amounted to a decision not to make the change.
Given that Labor also opposes the so-called “effects test”, Strong admits a conventional marginal seats campaign is not an option. “But Nick Xenophon and the Greens both back our position,” he said.
“We are considering campaigns in some marginal seats, pointing out which parties stand up for the interests of small business,” he said.
Strong said his organisation would never explicitly advocate a vote for or against any party but was likely to provide information explaining which parties had competition policies that protected small business and which did not.
The threat of a small-business campaign in South Australia is likely to particularly worry the Liberals. Xenophon is planning to run candidates from his “Nick Xenophon team” in three marginal Liberal seats, including Sturt, held by education minister Christopher Pyne.
The Coalition’s popularity in the state has been hit by the announced closure of GM’s north Adelaide plant and the continued uncertainty over the construction of the next generation of submarines.
The Business Council of Australia and many senior ministers were opposed to Billson’s determination to change the competition law even though it was recommended by the government’s recent Harper review.
Abbott had left most ministers, and big-business lobbyists, with the impression that he backed Billson’s plan.
Companies including Telstra, Bluescope and Qantas are understood to have joined the two big supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, as well as Wesfarmers and the BCA, in a major lobbying campaign to defeat the move.
The government had expected strong support from the small-business sector after announcing a tax cut for incorporated small businesses, a tax discount for unincorporated small businesses and extra tax deductions in the May budget, in which it described small business as the “engine room” of the economy and of job creation.
