Liberals support small business states Julie Bishop

Announcement posted by Rob Bryden AMEP NSW Senate Candidate 01 Jun 2016

Really?

It’s great to hear our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop speak yesterday about the importance of small business as the backbone of Australia and as AMEP Senate Candidate for NSW I totally endorse those comments.

But what’s been done to assist small business aside from proposing a tiny tax cut? No mention about the Red Tape that was promised to be cut at the last election.

I was contacted this morning by a voter very concerned about the effect of Red Tape on his business as a Vehicle Certifier. He wasn’t worried about saving a few cents in tax, he was worried about the over reach of Government staff destroying his business and the prospects of his client’s specialist vehicles being allowed on the road.

The Regulations say that a private, approved Engineer has the responsibility to certify that an individually built vehicle is safe and sound for use on the road. Should anything go wrong he carries, as part of his obligations, a very large insurance policy to protect those who drive the vehicles he certifies in the highly unlikely event anything should go wrong. All good so far.

However, we now are seeing interference by government employees, who have no engineering role in the certification process, no insurance and are not approved as Certifiers, dipping their hands into the mix, deliberately raising road blocks and incorrectly applying Australian Design Rules to prevent local car enthusiasts from building a car from, say, a Kit from a well-known supplier! This is not within their remit and the Regulators should be directed to assist local enthusiasts and local businesses build specialist cars rather than do everything they can to stop them.

A well-known Australian supplier of specialist cars and kits, PRB, was forced to shut down due the burdens placed upon by the Regulations and the Regulator. This would not happen overseas where similar businesses making very similar vehicles thrive with the support of common sense regulations and regulators.

We need representation in Canberra that understands the needs of small business – a tiny tax cut helps but removing the Red Tape that strangles business and changing the attitude of Regulators is far more valuable.