Portfolio Media

$2400 an hour for more Rudd window-dressing

03 September 2009

The Rudd Labor Government will spend more than $2400 an hour on a small business support line of highly questionable value to small business, says Shadow Small Business Minister Steven Ciobo.

Mr Ciobo said the small business support line announced by Small Business Minister Craig Emerson this morning will cost taxpayers $10 million over two years and had all the hallmarks of the calamitous Grocery Watch and Fuel Watch.

“Over two years at 40 hours a week, that’s more than $2400 an hour for something which you could bill as Son of Fuel Watch, or Grocery Watch II,” Mr Ciobo said. “It’s another classic bit of Rudd Government window dressing - all spin and no substance all designed to be seen to be doing something.”

“It’s another chapter in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s epic: Acting Not Doing – A Political Guide to Looking Good.”

“Here is a support line purported to help small businesses costing taxpayers $2400 an hour, but which offers none of the tangible help which small businesses need day-to-day. Honestly, how much will this help small business effectively at a time when insolvencies are mounting around the country" We’ve seen increases of almost 10 per cent in Queensland and 16 per cent in Western Australia in the year to June.”

“The government should concentrate on real, tangible support for small business that will assist their cash flow, like the help proposed in the Coalition’s Plan for Small Business Recovery.”

“The tax-loss carry back; relaxation on the allowable margin of error for PAYG instalment variations from 15 per cent to 30 per cent; cutting red tape to the lowest level in the developed world; incentives for small business to take on apprentices – they’re the sorts of things small business needs to lead the recovery, not another 1800 number,” Mr Ciobo said.

Mr Ciobo said to add insult to injury, the support line would start more than two months behind schedule.

“The funding for this was from July 1. Here we are now in September with a start announcement.”