ELECTION 2010: Billson slams Labor’s lack of small business policy

Opposition small business spokesman Bruce Billson says he is flabbergasted that Labor has not released a specific small business policy ahead of the federal election and says Small Business Minister Craig Emerson has stopped listening to the SME community.

Billson, who will be small business minster and in cabinet if the Coalition wins government, says the response to the Coalition’s small business policy has been good.

“The small business community have been keen to engage with me and the Coalition, particularly as we are the only party to have released a substantive policy for small business.”

Aside from promising to put the small business post in cabinet and introduce a new small business ombudsman, Billson says a Coalition government’s initial priorities would be to work with regulators to try to improve small business access to finance and to introduce regulators to protect small business from unfair contracts.

A Coalition Government would also introduce a new measure to ensure all policies introduced to cabinet are assessed for their small business impact.

“We have a comprehensive agenda to put business back into small business,” Billson says.

His task in campaigning for the small business vote has been made much easier by the fact that Labor has not yet released a specific small business policy and have instead campaigned on promised company tax cuts, which do not come into place until 2013.

“I am flabbergasted. I cannot imagine what Labor must be thinking. It’s almost a gesture of spite to not even produce a small business policy,” he says.

It is still unclear whether Emerson will announce a policy prior to Saturday’s poll.

Billson has also attacked Labor’s economic credibility, claiming the proportion of workers employed by small businesses has fallen from 53% to 48% under the Rudd/Gillard Government, a fall of 300,000 workers.

“This is clear evidence of how disengaged and disinterested the Rudd Government has been in the small business community.”

Billson admits members of the small business community have given a mixed reaction to the Coalition’s plan to leave Labor’s Fair Work industrial relations regime alone, but says most business owners understand the plan.

Billson says a Coalition government would allow the laws to “settle” and assess their operation before seeking a mandate for any changes at the 2013 election.

SmartCompany has requested an interview with Craig Emerson. Billson and Emerson will appear in a debate tonight on ABC Television’s Lateline Business, which will be analysed on SmartCompany tomorrow.