‘Needs more meat on the bone’: Labor’s small business strategy slammed

A new small business strategy released by Labor includes images of American workers, while two-thirds of the report is made up of cover pages, graphics and pictures.

Labor’s new national strategy for small businesses has been lambasted by the Coalition, who have pointed out that two thirds of the 62-page document are made up of stock images of American businesses, cover pages and graphics.

The National Small Business Strategy, released this week by Labor, was also slammed for containing no new policies or initiatives weeks out from a federal election – with the document containing a meek commitment to continuing biannual meetings between the country’s small business ministers.

Pictures of workers used in the document were sourced from stock imagery previously used in American publications.

This included a photograph of a cafe worker from New Jersey, two carpenters used in a Bank of America ad in 2021, and a chef whose picture was previously used in a report about retirement savings programs centred on Illinois, US.

Images used in the report included stock images from American-based businesses. Pictured is a stock image also used on a Bank of America ad in 2021.

Labor's new national small business strategy which is a 60 page document with 20 pages of pictures or cover pages and 20 pages of case studies, with no new policiess. Meanwhile, the images used are stock images from American-based businesses.

Opposition deputy leader and Coalition small business spokeswoman Sussan Ley said the report didn’t contain a “single new policy measure or intervention that will help Australia’s small business sector which is being smashed by Labor’s failures”.

“My advice to the small businesses of Australia is don’t bother printing off this strategy because it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on,” she said.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Coalition has tabled a range of policies targeting small businesses, including a proposal for $20,000 capped tax deductions for business-related meals and entertainment and winding back industrial relations measures introduced by Labor.

Small business Minister Julie Collins said the strategy would go alongside “$640 million in practical and targeted support our Government is delivering for Australia’s small businesses”.

“That is what will help small businesses – not petty attacks,” she said.

Minister Julie Collins holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The Liberals and the Nationals had almost a decade in Government and didn’t deliver a strategy for small business.”

It’s understood Treasury has an account for stock images, which has been used in previous documents compiled under former governments.

Council of Small Business Organisations Australia CEO Luke Achterstraat welcomed stronger co-ordination between federal and state governments, but said the policy needs “much more meat on the bone and tangible policies to help small business”.

“Platitudes alone are not going to reduce the cost of doing business or arrest insolvency rates,” he said.

The number of businesses going insolvent has soared over the last year, with 3,852 collapsing across Australia in the December quarter.