THE AUSTRALIAN Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO), Bruce Billson, has outlined 14 steps designed to give more support to the nation’s 2.5 million small businesses.

“Many of our small and family businesses are doing it tough right now,” Mr Billson said.

“We need to do more to energise enterprise and create and nurture the spark that will inspire someone to turn an idea into investment, to build a business, to take on the risk and big responsibility of creating an opportunity-generating new enterprise, and to employ that extra person.

“We need more incentives for those starting a small business, a simple, quick and cost-effective way for small business owners to settle court disputes, and more emphasis on encouraging younger Australians to consider business ownership,” he said. 

“Small business is rightly celebrated for generating 33 percent of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and providing jobs for 5.36 million people – 42 percent of the private workforce.

“But in 2006, small business contributed 40 percent of GDP and employed 53 per cent of those with a private sector job.

“This is a worrying trajectory. We are sleepwalking into a ‘big corporate’ economy.”

Mr Billson said the latest available data revealed some disturbing facts about the SME ecosystem.

He said 46 percent of small businesses did not make a profit in the most recent year of accounts available.

“Three-quarters of self-employed business owners, for whom their business is their full-time livelihood endeavour, are earning less than the average total weekly, full-time wage,” Mr Billson said.

“Small business owners are getting older, with the average age now 50, up from 45 in 2006.

“Only 8 percent of small business owners are under the age of 30, half what it was in the 1970s.”

The ASBFEO Small Business Pulse, which is a ‘health check’ of objective vital signs for the small business sector while also taking into account the ‘animal spirits’ that drive decision making, shows that the business environment for small business is 25 percent below the long-term average.

“If you believe as I do, that small and family businesses are the ‘engine room of the economy’, we have lost a cylinder in a 4-cylinder engine in the aftermath of COVID,” Mr Billson said.

“We can and must do more to make the risk and reward balance more attractive. We need to create a more supportive ecosystem to give enterprising people the best chance to be successful.”

Mr Billson said the reform priorities had been identified after widespread consultation and investigation.

As a result, the ASBFEO has developed 14 steps that must be taken to energise the sector and they are summarised as Energise Enterprise:

The 14 steps to Energise Enterprise

1. Explore the potential benefits of a tax discount/offset scheme for new small business owners to allow them to keep more of their income to re-invest in their business during the critical first three years.

2. Focus on right-sized regulation, including how regulators and government formulate and administer laws, to help, support and enable small business owners, who do not have the resources of big business, meet their obligations.

3. Require every Cabinet submission, preliminary and formal regulatory impact statement and new policy proposal to include a small business impact statement.

4. Establish the Prime Minister’s Small Business Awards to recognise and celebrate excellence and inspire the next generation.

5. Give small businesses an affordable, effective and timely alternative to defend their own economic interest where fair trading protections and reasonable commercial conduct safeguards are infringed upon by creating a Federal Small Business and Codes List in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

6. Give small business a greater chance to compete for government contracts by decoding the rules and practices that favour the ‘in-crowd’ of familiar, established and larger suppliers.

7. Make it mandatory for banks and other providers to charge the lowest fee for tap-and-go, dual-network debit card transactions as the default, saving small business around $1 billion a year.

8. Undertake urgent and decisive action to ensure that essential insurances for small businesses are understandable, accessible and affordable.

9. Ban unfair trading/business practices that distort competition and harm small business.

10. Create a dedicated Small Business Commissioner and Division within the Fair Work Commission to honour the ‘special circumstances’ of smaller employers existing workplace law are required to reflect and to oversee the implementation of proportionate instruments, procedures, practices and protections.

11. Require digital platform providers to implement clear, appropriate and standardised procedures for timely small business dispute resolution.

12. Honour businesses, big and small, who fulfil their workplace obligations to employees, meet tax reporting and payment obligations in a timely way and pay small business suppliers in under 21 days, with a ‘Good Business Pays’ recognition and accreditation.

13. Expand digital learning and practical support via enterprise-specific capacity building and technology deployment and focusing on business system and reg-tech solutions, information management (including cyber resilience, e-invoicing, data management, privacy duties and Consumer Data Right awareness) and practical generative Artificial Intelligence uses.

14. Develop a readily accessible and easily navigable central resource hub of ‘best of breed’ actionable information, supports, ‘how to’ guidance, programs and assistance developed by government and private sector specifically prepared for small and family business use.

The Energising Enterprise report is available at www.asbfeo.gov.au/14-steps

 www.asbfeo.gov.au/14-steps

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

SILVER Mines Ltd is in a sweet spot.

Operating its mine out of Mudgee in central New South Wales, it is the largest undeveloped silver project in Australia – and one of the largest globally – and Silver Mines has received extensive government support.

Initially the mine, known locally as the Bowdens Silver Project, will produce 6 million ounces of silver a year plus some zinc and lead. Roughly 70 percent (%) of the revenues will come from silver, with 20% from zinc and 10% from lead. 

The mine has a 16-year life at present – with the project to run 23 years in total, with rehabilitation – but its potential is actually likely to be far longer lasting.

“When we say a 16 year mine life, we’re happy to say, hand on our hearts, that this project will still be in production in 50 years time,” Silver Mines Ltd recently-retired managing director Anthony McClure told Talking Business. Executive director Jonathan Battershill has followed Mr McClure into the role.

“It’s continuing depth when we keep drilling,” Mr McClure said. “We don’t know the actual size of it but, as of today, the mineral resources have almost 400 million ounces of silver and we’re busy tapping into it in the phase one of development.”

Silver is in greater global demand than ever

Mr McClure said silver was in high demand for solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and all electronic goods, because it was the best conductor of electricity.

“When you think about an EV, the drive for the engineers is to get the utmost out of the battery … and to be able to do that, you need connectivity in the car to maximise the output from the battery so silver is through it.

“There’s photovoltaic silver in solar power. It’s the best conductor of electricity.

“It’s in everything we do. There’s a lot of it in conventional cars, or combustion engine cars. It’s through our computers, our phones, in 5G towers. In almost all electronics, you’ll have silver.”

Silver is mainly derived out of Central and South America. Mexico is the largest producer of silver – and China are also producing it, plus they are also recycling the metal.

Australia is in third spot in terms of production. However, Australia is in a good position.

“Silver as a stand-along commodity in Australia is pretty unusual, but we’re still a big producer. But the market is very keen to see silver produced out of tier one jurisdictions and obviously we’re that,” Mr McClure said.

The world looks to Australia

As a result, many lot smelters in the world are now looking at the product produced by Silver Mines.

Mr McClure said a lot of work was now going on to see how silver can be turned into a manufactured product in Australia, such as photovoltaic silver for solar panels, rather than it being bought from places like China.

“We’re the miners but it would be great for us to see manufacturing in Australia for critical minerals,” he said.

“The reason why the Federal and State Governments have a very strong drive in critical minerals and high tech metals is that having reliance on other jurisdictions for these metals is not a great position to be in.

“It would be great to see further manufacturing in Australia. I don’t expect us to be in the market of producing electric vehicles in Australia, but there might be componentry that feeds into electric vehicles,” Mr McClure said.

“Certainly photovoltaic cells are being looked at.”

www.silvermines.com.au

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-21-interview-with-anthony-mcclure-from-silv

MASTER Builders Australia has applauded the Federal Government for taking “meaningful steps” to reduce barriers to growing the building and construction workforce.

Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said, “Master Builders has long advocated that we must do more to boost our domestic capacity and make it easier for migrants to work in the industry.

“We have worked closely with the government to make these policies a reality and thank Minister O’Connor and Minister Collins for responding to our concerns. If we are going to have any chance of building enough homes we have to prioritise capacity building of the industry,” Ms Wawn said.

“Workforce shortages remain the biggest source of cost pressure and disruption for the building and construction industry.

“Despite a sizeable workforce of 1.35 million Australians, the industry has an annual exit rate of eight percent, and we are only replacing half of those people per year.

“Our recent report into productivity found prolonged labour shortages are reducing industry output by $50 billion dollars and thousands of homes over the next five years.”

In its pre-budget submissions, Master Builders put forward several policy proposals to increase participation in the industry.

“The announcement of Fee-Free TAFE and VET places rightfully recognises the role of not-for-profit industry-led registered training organisations in training the next generation of tradies,” Ms Wawn said.

“It’s now up to state and territory governments to ensure industry-run RTOs are held on equal footing with TAFE.

“Industry-run RTOs, like those run by Master Builders associations around the country, have excellent retention and completion rates, provide pastoral care and support to apprentices that help them find success in their trade.

“We know in the short-term the domestic workforce cannot keep up with demand. Skilled migration represents a vital piece of the puzzle,” Ms Wawn said.

“The investment into prioritising and streamlining skills assessments for potential migrants and those already in the country is welcome news. 

“For many migrants, it is simply too hard to have their professional capacity recognised to work in a trade in Australia, and they are instead in roles that present fewer hurdles to obtain.

“The Parkinson Migration Review found skills assessments or qualification recognition can take up to 18 months and cost nearly $10,000 – that’s time and money people simply don’t have in this economic climate.

“There is still a long way to go and Master Builders will continue to work closely with the government to ensure we make the building and construction industry as attractive as possible.”

www.masterbuilders.com.au

ends

THE LATEST building activity data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has confirmed there is still a long way to go before Australia overcomes the housing crisis.

Master Builders chief economist Shane Garrett said work started on just 163,285 new homes during 2023, a 10.5 percent reduction on the previous year.

“During 2023, detached house starts dropped by 16.4 percent to 99,443,” Mr Garrett said. “This is the lowest in a decade. The final three months of the 2023 quarter saw higher density home starts drop for the third consecutive quarter.

“A total of 62,720 higher density homes were commenced during 2023 overall – the worst performance in 12 years. 

“The mismatch between the supply of new homes to the rental market and demand for rental accommodation is particularly worrying.

“Rental inflation continues to accelerate at a time when price pressures across the rest of the economy have been abating,” Mr Garrett said.

Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn said this result meant 934,400 new homes have been started across Australia over the past five years.

“Yesterday, Master Builders Australia released its latest industry forecasts which showed we are on track to fall over 110,000 homes short of its Housing Accord target,” Ms Wawn said.

“When it comes to signing new contracts, the pen is not making it to paper as the investment does not stack up.

“Since 2019 we have seen the cost of home building increase by 40 percent.

“Governments need to work to change this. The cost of delivering projects needs to go down and the time to completion must be shortened.

“To achieve these targets, builders are ready to take on the challenge, but clearing the barriers on the road is necessary to get the job done,” Ms Wawn said.

www.masterbuilders.com.au

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