Small Business Minister Bruce Billson backed Business Armadale president Paul Harrison’s call for infrastructure including NBN and roads, calling them the ‘arteries of enterprise’ at a colourful address at a breakfast on September 3.
Mr Billson was in Armadale after being invited by the late Don Randall to address the Business Armadale event.
He said the federal government had put small business at the forefront of decision making by reducing red tape as the rules the government passed were aimed at big business when 96 per cent responding to the rules were small businesses.
He said the budget package and tax incentives for small business were an attempt to celebrate profit and its spin off effects such as employment.
“I don’t know why some people think profit is a dirty word,” he said.
“It is an essential precondition for people to be inclined to employ somebody.
“It gives meaning and momentum to economic decisions to invest, employ, to grow, to take a chance to do all the things we need to do in our nation to make sure that we can achieve our best.
“That is what the budget package is about, five and a half billion dollars, the largest small business budget package in our nation’s history.”
Mr Billson said small business owners were the ‘backbone of the Armadale economy and the engine room of the national economy’.
He said the rollout of broadband needed a shift in focus from areas that already had it to industrial and commercial areas where capability was weak or non-existent.
He said four out of five consumers searched for what they wanted on devices but only one in two businesses had a presence on the internet.
In answer to questions from the floor Mr Billson said he was happy to find out where the demand from customers was for NBN such as the Forrestdale business park and would pass it on to NBN Co.
“What you can to is advise NBN Co of where there are customers underserviced,” he said.
“They are spending money like there is no tomorrow and we have said to them you need to raise some revenue and to do that you actually need to go where the customers want the stuff,” he said.
“They are open to that and that’s were we are trying to steer them. So if you can get specific neighbourhood level and even a sense of the customers and likely demand I am more than happy to work with Andrew (Hastie) to feed that in.
“I have got the CEO of NBN Co Bill Morrow’s phone number here because I am stalking him about that for the very same reason you are, because when people are thinking about where to invest I want them to invest in my community.”
“If there is a comparable disadvantage about availability of broadband I want that fixed.”
(Examiner Newspapers is a sponsor of Business Armadale)
