Peter Strong: Why is small business missing from Jim Chalmers’ value-based capitalism?

Values-based capitalism, as highlighted by Treasurer Jim Chalmers in a recent edition of The Monthly, is an interesting thought bubble. Apparently, it requires businesses to make decisions based on the values and needs of the community, as well as the need to be profitable and viable.

There is an important group of people missing in that opinion piece. A group who have become invisible in discussions about the economy. A group that used to be front and centre of economic policy considerations. A group that were one of the keys to seeing Australian communities through the worst of COVID. 

This group has been previously described as the backbone of Australian communities. For example, they are integral to the survival of community sport through sponsorship and board membership. They are also essential for the survival of community-based charities through funds and further board membership. 

This is a group of people from which our newest innovators emerge and from which our next medium and large businesses are born. 

A group of over 2.1 million individuals who between them provide jobs for over 4.5 million other people.

A group of people with values.

I am of course talking about the small business people of Australia.

Say our names

We have somehow reached the point where it is rare for the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, or any minister to even mention the words ‘small business’. It’s like we never existed.

Parliamentary question time has recently seen the minister responsible for small business identified by government backbenchers as the “Minister for Housing and Homelessness” not including the rest of the portfolio title: “and Small Business”. This is not only a breach of parliamentary protocol, it is disrespectful of the nation’s 2.1 million small business owners and their employees. While no one dismisses the importance of housing and homelessness, small business is equally as important.

It would be bad if this omission was a reflection of ambivalence towards small business by this government; it would be even worse if it was deliberate, due to the government knowing that the small business community has very few union members and therefore believing they don’t count.

We also see the crossbench – many of whom can thank their election on the votes of self-employed – also move on from small business to other things. 

No one is championing the needs of small business in the federal parliament at the moment and it is disappointing.

Businesses with values

The fact is so-called values-based capitalism has existed for a long time in the Australian small business community. 

The success of a business is also about the reputation of the business owner and their family. The values of that person, that family, is very often obvious to customers and the community.

Some small business people will fail the test of goodness and honesty. That failure is found in every sector of society – politicians, unions, bureaucrats, academics, workers, board directors, the clergy and so forth. But the vast majority of small business owners are hard-working Australians who generate an honest living for their family and create vibrant jobs for their employees in their local area.

We saw the absolute value provided by small business folk to their community during COVID and that should never be forgotten.

What also appears to have been disregarded (or deliberately ignored) is the small business contribution to skills development, to our capacity to manage change, to the employment of disadvantaged groups, to health, to recreation, to economic flexibility — to almost everything.

So, we need to make sure that economic health is driven from the bottom up, not from big decisions made in central agencies on our behalf. Ownership of change shouldn’t rest with a handful of boffins in Treasury – that doesn’t work.

We need to roll out a national program of local economic development – one with true empowerment of local business communities. This approach worked in the Hawke-Keating era — the last time the Australian economy experienced a major challenge — and it can work again. Treasury boffins, ‘big government’ politicians, and blinkered ideologues should not be allowed to block such a program.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised a lot to small business before the last election but at present, not so much is happening. The minister responsible for Housing, Homelessness and Small Business, Julie Collins, should at least explain why, now, they believe small business is not that important and will not be a key part of Australia’s economic future.

Politician’s memories may be short but, be assured, small business people will remember who supported them when it comes to the next federal election.

Peter Strong is the former chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia.