Federal election 2022: Morrison outlines plans for small business growth

Scott Morrison has promised to create 400,000 new small and family businesses within five years by lowering overhead costs and energy bills.

Scott Morrison will step up his pitch to self-funded retirees and pensioners. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison has promised to create 400,000 new small and family businesses within five years by lowering overhead costs and energy bills for millions of mum-and-dad operators, as the Coalition refocuses its election campaign on the economic recovery.

Using new ATO data showing the government’s tax incentives drove $23bn in investment and helped create 100,000 small businesses over the past year, the Prime Minister will travel to marginal NSW seats on Thursday to tell voters “when we create small businesses, we create jobs”.

The pivot to small business following the Reserve Bank’s decision to lift the cash rate to 0.35 per cent comes as the Coalition ramped-up its push to win seats off Labor in outer-suburban, coastal and regional electorates.

Mr Morrison, who visited Park’s Lifestyle Village on Wednesday in the wafer-thin Coalition-held marginal Adelaide seat of Boothby, has also stepped-up his pitch to self-funded retirees and pensioners, offering cheaper medicines, easier access to seniors’ cards and a freeze on deeming rates.

It comes as Anthony Albanese, in a speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday, will tell business leaders the Coalition has overseen “flatlining productivity (and) worse outcomes for business and workers alike”.

“We will make secure jobs with good wages our focus. Australia must lift the country’s productivity, for as the economist Paul Krugman once famously said, “productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything”, he will say.

“The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments of the past ­decade have dropped the ball on productivity.

“Infrastructure investment based upon colour-coded spreadsheets rather than productivity. A deliberate suppression of wages. Over-reliance on temporary labour rather than skilling Australians. No energy policy.”

Mr Morrison on Thursday will announce a $17.9m package to reduce energy costs for employers and outline plans to help launch 400,000 new small businesses, adding to a previous campaign pledge to create 1.3 million new jobs by 2027.

“Our plan for a strong economy and a stronger future for all Australians relies on strong small businesses,” he will say. “That means keeping taxes at record lows, slashing red tape, backing trades training and apprentices, signing new trade deals to create new export markets, and ensuring businesses can tackle the overhead costs of electricity prices. We have the track record to set the conditions that help create businesses, and our ambitious pledge will see 400,000 more join our economy.”

The ATO data shows $21.8bn of business investment was linked to the government’s expanded instant asset write-off scheme, with an extra $1.2bn paid through the loss carry back initiative.

With Labor pressing hard on rising rates and inflation, Mr Morrison on Wednesday defended the government’s economic record during the pandemic and warned voters not to “risk that economic shield” with Labor.

“Those self-funded retirees and pensioners I spoke to this morning, they’re the ones who experienced the 18 per cent interest rates. They know what it’s like when a Labor Party loses control of the finances,” he said.