Future small business owners are being promised good economic conditions to start up, as the prime minister continues to play up the government’s fiscal credentials.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says 400,000 new small businesses can be created over the next five years if his Liberal-National government is returned at the May 21 election.
The coalition is offering lower taxes, less red tape and energy efficiency to encourage more small businesses to set up shop, building on its efforts to support a similar number in the past five years.
“What we’re working on is ensuring the cost pressures on their business can be mitigated, can be relieved, and that’s how we’ve ensured we’ve had 400,000 small businesses created over the last five years,” Mr Morrison told the Seven Network on Thursday.
Asked how many small businesses had closed in the past five years, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham did not have the exact number but said the government’s data took into account those that had closed in that time.
“I don’t have, off the top of my head, the ins and outs (of closures) on a year-by-year basis,”,” Senator Birmingham told ABC radio.
“This is about making sure the policy settings (are) in place because they’re the things that matter.”
Meanwhile, Labor leader Anthony Albanese will make his election pitch to industry leaders in a speech at an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry gathering in Sydney, stressing the need for economic reform.
“A country cannot keep drawing from an old well, because the well eventually dries out,” he will say.
“Australia needs a new playbook to seize the future.”
Among the measures proposed by Mr Albanese is universal childcare, which he says will support workforce participation.
Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the first time in almost 12 years, taking the cash rate from 0.1 per cent to 0.35 per cent.
The rate hike has put cost of living pressures at the centre of the election campaign, with both leaders claiming they would be better at managing the financial squeeze being felt by Australian households.
