The government announced $2 billion in small business support in this year’s federal Budget. For those of us actually running one, that number feels like fiction.
I operate a wellness studio in Australia. In the past twelve months, my landlord has increased rent, raised our bond, and passed on higher insurance and land tax costs. Minimum wage is up. Superannuation is up. Inflation is embedded in every supplier invoice I receive.
And yet I cannot pass these costs on. My customers are under the same pressure I am. They are watching every dollar. If I raise prices, they stop coming. It’s that simple and that brutal.
The budget offered eligible small businesses $150 in energy relief and a mental health helpline. I don’t need a helpline. I need meaningful land tax reform, a commercial rent relief framework, and genuine superannuation support for small employers that goes beyond a write-off that barely covers the cost of a second-hand coffee machine. Don’t get me started on BAS!
Small businesses employ nearly half of Australia’s private sector workforce. We are not a rounding error. We are the economy. Yet we’re totally and utterly overlooked; furthermore, we’re constantly disadvantaged and, pound for pound, have to overpay just to keep the lights on compared to big tech companies and corporations.
It is time the budget reflected that.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
