ELECTION 2010: SmartCompany poll shows SMEs backing Coalition

The SME community is still backing the Coalition to win next week’s Federal Election, but the latest SmartCompany election poll shows a big proportion of entrepreneurs are demanding action on climate change.

While recent opinion polls show the election is evenly poised, SmartCompany’s poll of 206 people showed 59.2% plan to vote for the Coalition, with 22.3% supporting Labor.

The majority of respondents (60.7%) also believe the Coalition has announced the best policies for small business so far in the campaign, with just over 26% backing Labor.

But the survey has also revealed SMEs are unimpressed with the lack of action on climate change from both major parties.

Just over 14% of respondents said they would be voting for The Greens in the election, while just under 40% said the Greens had the best policies on climate change.

A large number of respondents also nominated poor climate change policies as their biggest disappointment of the campaign, and expressed hope that the issue would still be addressed by the major parties in the final weeks before polling day. A number of respondents also wanted to see more action on the Murray-Darling Basin.

When asked which party had the best policies on tax, business support and economic management, more than 60% of respondents gave the nod to the Coalition.

The Opposition was also the clear policy winner when respondents were asked about the areas of industrial relations, innovation and infrastructure.

However, it is clear the Tony Abbott’s promise to scrap Labor’s NBN and build a cheaper network is not supported by the SME community: 48.6% of respondents said Labor had the best policy on broadband, while 40.8% nominated the Coalition.

“His proposal to close down the National Broadband Network and to ‘privatise’ his ad hoc substitute has lost me completely,” one respondent said.

“We all know that it will cost us more in the long run when such important infrastructure is handed over to ‘private’ concerns for a substandard broadband network. I am older than Abbott and I consider him to be a backwards looking person. He doesn’t realise that times have changed dramatically.”

The fact Labor has also failed to produce a specific small business policy with only 10 days to go in the campaign is also rankling SME voters, who are unimpressed with the way the Government has portrayed employers in the campaign through its IR strategy.

“This is yet another election where Labor has portrayed SMEs as rich and greedy ogres ready to victimise their workers. I think Labor honestly believes that all business owners are rolling in cash and making huge profits, but many company directors I know don’t even pull a wage.”

However, the survey clearly highlights that the big disappointment for most respondents is the lack of real policy initiatives.

“Mind numbing drivel and scare tactics from politicians, do they think we are stupid?” said one respondent.

“This has been a real cover-your-backside campaign, with no inspiration being shown by either side,” said another.

The major parties have less than two weeks to turn these perceptions around.