Why we need a small business party

I saw Mark Bouris, the Wizard Home Loans founder who has become an unofficial spokesperson for small businesses, calling for the formation of a small business political party recently, and it got me thinking.

Do we really need a dedicated small business party? My initial instinct was that we probably don't, because small business is a focus for the major political parties – at least according to their rhetoric. Let's take a look.

What the Coalition has to say

The Coalition's policies talk of cutting the small business company tax rate to 25 per cent by 2026/2027, simplifying Business Activity Statements, cutting red tape by $4.5 billion, simplifying employee share schemes and removing almost 450,000 small businesses from the PAYG system.

It could be argued that free trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan - put in place over the past two years - will benefit small business. Changes to competition laws to help smaller companies compete with bigger businesses, and ensure they're not shut out of markets dominated by big players, would also help support smaller entities.

It's also worth noting the Coalition's National Innovation and Science Agenda. Introduced in December 2015, it includes an incubator support program and aims to build Australia's start-up ecosystem.

What Labor has to say 

Labor's policies include plans to boost digital skills within small to medium-sized enterprises. It has also said it would provide income-contingent loans to students to support participation in university accelerators or incubators run by successful entrepreneurs. The party has also said it would introduce two new visa categories to attract global entrepreneurial talent to Australia.

Additionally, Labor has said it would establish an Innovation Investment Partnership, bringing together venture capitalists and superannuation funds, and exploring mechanisms to encourage super funds to invest in start-ups. It has also said it would get start-ups and small businesses involved in solving government problems and support them to compete in government tenders.

The real deal

All of those policies sound fine to me, but to be honest, they don't deal with the major issues small businesses talk to me about, which are: subpar internet access, meaningful tax breaks, getting paid in a timely fashion by bigger businesses and not having to put their house at risk to access funding. 

I think, therefore, there probably is a place for a small business party to exert its influence on public policy.

So why isn't there one already? The simple reason is because small business owners are so busy running their enterprises, they just don't have time to organise themselves in any meaningful way into a political party.

Which is a shame, because I think that's the only real way the issues that really are keeping small business owners awake at night will be addressed.

All the Coalition's and Labor's policies are great, and forward-thinking, and it's so important to put start-ups and innovation on the national agenda. And the incentives the Coalition has introduced over the past two years are important.

But we need a more aggressive approach to helping small businesses to be as productive as they can be. Perhaps Mark Bouris is just the man for the job.

What do you think? Do we need a small business political party?