Today the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) has released comparison findings on the policies proposed by the Coalition and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) that will effect small businesses.
The policies were assessed based on areas considered to be of high importance to the small business community.
As part of the findings, COSBOA have graded policies of critical importance; three areas are considered highly critical for the future of the sector.
On the ‘Important Policy Areas’ for small business, the Coalition trails in one category (i.e. Climate and Energy), while the ALP trails in seven, with a further two areas having no policy coverage (i.e. Export Market Facilitations and Mental Health policies for small business owners) by the ALP.
Of the three areas deemed to be ‘highly critical’ (i.e. Wage Policy, Access to Finance and VET), the parties were deemed to be similar in two areas (i.e. Access to Finance and VET) however in the area of ‘Wage Policy’ the ALP policy was ranked as a ‘fail’.
A summary of the results have been laid out in the below table, however, a comprehensive document is available via the below link.
SUMMARY – Comparison of small business policies between the major parties
| COSBOA policy area | COSBOA “Importance Weighting” (1 to 3) with 1 being “highly critical” |
Policy Scores | |
| Coalition Score | ALP score | ||
|
3 | 69% | 69% |
|
2 | 60% | 40% |
|
2 | 75% | 40% |
|
2 | 65% | 41% |
|
1 | 65% | 32% |
|
2 | 40% | 50% |
|
2 | 65% | 45% |
|
2 | 70% | 45% |
|
1 | 75% | 65% |
|
3 | 70% | 40% |
|
1 | 75% | 70% |
|
3 | 60% | 0% |
|
2 | 70% | 0% |
Peter Strong, CEO of COSBOA, stated; “Perhaps there is no surprise that the Coalition has scored well, and COSBOA members express deep concern about the wages policy proposed by Labor. VET and energy continue to rate highly as key areas of concern.”
To see the full report, visit: https://www.cosboa.org.au/policy-comparison
