Page 22 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 16 February 1993
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I believe that we should begin our new period of government by clearly outlining our intentions ...
Further on she said:
The Government also believes that the community needs a clear agenda from the Government, an agenda which will allow business, unions, families and individuals to be confident about the future of our community ... Let there be no doubt about our agenda.
Those are beautiful words, nice motherhood statements, nice rhetoric, but where are the actions? If anything represents the hallmark of this Government, it is its lack of a clearly enunciated agenda. Ms Follett also stated:
We must focus on job creation so that jobs are available to those seeking them ...
Businesses are not going to employ people if they are going broke. Only profitable business can hire additional people. Jobs can be created only if business can grow because the economic environment is conducive to growth. Our economy will get going only in a climate in which business can operate profitably. Bankruptcies are still increasing in the ACT whereas they are decreasing in other States.
Business gets depressed when there is no leadership; when they experience bad news in all sections of the media; when consumers are complaining; when business says that this Government is not helping but is hindering business; when business says, "Times are bad; let us not invest at present". These are the things that depressions are made of. Only when the Government gets positive, when the Government leads by example, will business believe that things are on the improve. What we need is businesses and persons who feel confident and positive, who feel that there is a job to be done, that the job is worth doing, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that they are not discriminated against. Then, and only then, will business invest and consumers buy again. When you think positive, you will get positive results; negative thinkers will get only negative results.
We often hear it said that our wage costs are too high, but what is actually meant by that is that our oncosts are too high. The average oncosts in Australia are approximately 45 per cent; or, to put it a different way, for every $100 spent on labour, a business has to cough up $145. This is in the form of payroll tax, training guarantee levy, superannuation, workers compensation, and all the other oncosts. I know from personal experience that there are many other hidden costs in the form of regulations, paperwork for taxes and other reporting demands, and so on. Many of those are Federal oncosts but some are local - for instance, payroll tax and occupational health and safety. What we need is a government encouraging business to employ people, not taxing them for employing people. A government that abolishes or at least halves payroll tax, for example, will show the business community that it is genuinely serious about wanting to assist, not hinder, progress.
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