‘..SMALL shops are still badly wounded from the global financial crisis, with exclusive analysis for news.com.au showing that more than 30,000 of the most vulnerable small businesses disappeared between the 2007 and 2010 elections.
…..Small business leaders blame the brutal decline on difficulty in getting credit, the tough red tape obligations and the burden of unpaid work for the government such as collection of superannuation contributions.
“It’s in crisis, and the anger of people out there is palpable,” said Peter Strong, CEO of the National Independent Retailers Association and a director of the Council of Small Business of Australia…’
It’s dishonest to lay these closures at the feet of the global financial crisis, given the two factors I’ve bolded above. In times of crisis, (and preferably at any time) surely it’s a government’s responsibility to ease those factors? Instead of which, the massive bureaucratic burden simply keeps growing, regardless of economic realities. At a time when so many small businesses have had to shut up shop, the total number of bureaucrats has increased hugely. It’s time for some kind of realistic spending cap to be imposed on governments–they should have to justify every taxpayer-funded job.
It’s time to starve the monster.
