Page 979 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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Muslim community, second generation bookshop Canty’s Bookshop, run by Laura Canty, Milton and Michael Vassiliotis’s 40-year-old shoe business at Bailey’s Arcade, not to forget household-name family businesses like Cusack’s furniture and Gulson Canberra.
There are many more, but that is just a selection of some of the prominent family businesses that make such a wonderful contribution to our economy and to the ACT. It is perhaps because of this and their uniqueness that I think they make up one of the most resilient and nimble segments of our economy.
Yet with all of this, there is limited data and knowledge about family businesses. In many cases, family businesses are subsumed within other business segments and, by so doing, it ignores the reality that the family component of a business influences that business in a way that is tangibly different from other businesses.
I think Mr Smyth’s motion today draws upon a very simple principle, that being that, without understanding how family businesses operate and their success factors, governments cannot purport to understand how policy impacts on family businesses. Consequently, any attempts at assisting them will be nothing more than a hit-and-miss exercise. So we do have a problem with a lack of data, which this motion seeks to address.
At present both the ABS and the ATO categorise businesses by business size: micro businesses, fewer than five employees; small businesses, between six and 20 employees; medium businesses, between 21 and 200 employees; and large businesses, 201 employees and more. Although these categories are important and useful in understanding our business community better, the lack of distinction on family businesses sheds no light on an economic segment that accounts for two-thirds of all businesses in Australia and employs over half the country’s workforce.
Equally, although most people assume that family-owned businesses are small to medium enterprises, there are some family businesses that are quite considerable in scale. For example, the 2011 survey of family businesses conducted by KPMG found that not all family businesses were small, as approximately 10 per cent of businesses surveyed had annual turnovers of over $51 million, while at the same time 7½ per cent had turnovers between $21 million and $50 million and 13 per cent had turnovers between $11 million and $20 million. Likewise, if you were to tally up the total percentage of what many would consider a typical small mum-and-dad type business by turnover, this would amount to only about seven per cent.
What matters to family businesses? The unique features of family businesses influence the pattern of ownership, structure, management and governance. Likewise, business continuation and profit considerations bring about different goals and strategies from other types of businesses.
Having proactively consulted with family businesses, the Canberra Liberals understand that family businesses face a broad set of unique issues. There are issues concerning succession management, balancing family interests and conflict resolution. There are considerations on how family businesses are governed and the need to
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