The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), has released comparison findings on the policies proposed by the Coalition and the Australian Labor Party (ALP), affecting small businesses.
The policies were assessed based on areas considered to be of high importance to the small business community.
As part of the findings, COSBOA have graded policies of critical importance; three areas are considered highly critical for the future of the small business sector.
On the ‘Important Policy Areas’ for small business, the Coalition trails in one category (i.e. Climate and Energy), while the ALP trails in seven, with a further two areas having no policy coverage (i.e. Export Market Facilitations and Mental Health policies for small business owners) by the ALP.
Of the three areas deemed to be ‘highly critical’ (i.e. Wage Policy, Access to Finance and VET), the parties were deemed to be similar in two areas (i.e. Access to Finance and VET) however in the area of ‘Wage Policy’ the ALP policy was ranked as a ‘fail’.
You can see a summary of the comparison between the policies and how COSBOA ranks them in relation to the needs and wants of members below.
Comparison of small business policies between the major parties
|
COSBOA policy area |
COSBOA “Importance Weighting” (1 to 3) with 1 being “highly critical” |
Policy Scores |
|
|
Coalition Score |
ALP score |
||
|
3 |
69% |
69% |
|
2 |
60% |
40% |
|
2 |
75% |
40% |
|
2 |
65% |
41% |
|
1 |
65% |
32% |
|
2 |
40% |
50% |
|
2 |
65% |
45% |
|
2 |
70% |
45% |
|
1 |
75% |
65% |
|
3 |
70% |
40% |
|
1 |
75% |
70% |
|
3 |
60% |
0% |
|
2 |
70% |
0% |
Peter Strong CEO of COSBOA said the findings come as no surprise as COSBOA members have expressed deep concern about the wages policy proposed by Labor.
Strong said VET and energy also continue to rate highly as key areas of concern.
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