Prime Minister Tony Abbott said last week small businesses had been acknowledged in a way they had never been previously by a federal government in Australia.
In an interview with Mr Abbott and Canning candidate Andrew Hastie last week, Mr Abbott said small business was at the forefront of decisions.
He said the federal government ‘is constantly trying to do the right thing by small business and last year’s budget was a budget for saving’.
“That meant this year’s budget could be a budget of confidence and the great thing about this budget was that it was almost entirely focused on small business,” he said.
“I think the surge in confidence small business has felt over the last few months is because they know for the first time in our history there is a government which doesn’t just talk about small business but actually delivers for them.
“I was a member of the Howard government and I was actually minister for small business for a while and we talked a lot about small business and we meant it, but we never, to the best of my recollection, delivered specifically for small business.”
Mr Hastie said one of the biggest concerns raised with him was the impact of crime on small business.
“(Last Tuesday) just in Armadale I was at a hair dressing salon and she had been ram raided by people trying to steal money from her premise so small businesses are interested in the budget, they are talking in detail about that but the more pressing concern is crime and protecting their businesses from break-ins and theft and those sorts of things,” he said.
“The main issue for a lot of people is resolving the law and order issues in Armadale and specifically the law and order issues linked to the use of ice.”
Canning candidate for Labor Matt Keogh said more could be done to help small business.
“Canning business owners are telling me they want confidence to return to our economy and they want Labor’s NBN,” he said.
He said small businesses were finding it hard to access finance.
“Under Labor’s plan, we will work with the banking and financial services industry to develop start-up finance, a partial guarantee scheme.
“This is the kind of vision for the future Australia needs.”
