Good help is hard to find ... in Australia

AUSSIES lack motivation, say leading small businesses keen to start searching overseas to fill skilled labour shortage.

BOOSTING immigration would combat the shortage of skilled labour that is hurting small and medium enterprises.

That's the word from some of the country’s leading entrepreneurs, after almost one in five small and medium businesses listed a lack of skilled workers as their main concern in a survey of over 100 finalists in the 2011 Telstra Business Awards.

Northern Territory Small Business Award winner Justin Gill says one of the biggest challenges for his Darwin-based construction business Abode New Homes was sourcing Australian staff with a solid work ethic.

“To find skilled labour with the attitude that they want to do the right thing and they want to learn and they want to keep improving is hard,” he told news.com.au.

“I’m a fan of immigration in that if we immigrate skilled labour in and skilled resources, I think that can be a fantastic opportunity for Australia to benefit and business to benefit."

Aaron Wittman, chief operating officer of Coffs Harbour software development firm Janison, agreed that finding skilled labour in regional areas was difficult.

“There's no excess supply of IT staff in Coffs Harbour so there’s always a need to attract suitable staff,” he said.

“The amount of responses we get when we actually go out and look for employees is not overwhelming.

“We get a lot of international responses as well, which is showing that there’s a lack of staff in Australia that want to participate.”

Janison was the NSW winner for the Medium Business Award, the Telstra Regional Award and the Telstra Australian Business of the Year Award.

More than half of the finalists surveyed said they believed business conditions will be better in the 2011-12 financial year compared to the year just ended.

Forty-three per cent said lowering company taxes was the most important thing the Federal Government could do to help small and medium businesses.

“Tax is one thing but you’ve got that much red tape and compliances that go along with that that create more work and less productivity,” Mr Gill said.

"Reducing tax would definitely help compensate along that sort of line."

Abode New Homes was also the Northern Territory winner of the Telstra Australian Business of the Year Award.

Winners from all states will compete for national awards for micro, small and medium businesses, to be announced in Melbourne on August 26.