More than one in four businesses say they will shut if the next NSW Government does nothing about the cost of doing business crisis, according to a new survey of 900 businesses.

And if you think that figure is scary, spare a thought for the local café owner, childcare centre operator or manufacturer who must live with this prospect every day. 

Business NSW, the state’s peak business body, is today launching the We Mean Business election campaign.

The campaign policy platform is the culmination of member surveys, local and regional meetings and consultation with the nearly 50,000 businesses that Business NSW represents.

The We Mean Business campaign is demanding progress in areas including payroll tax, insurance premiums, housing, skills development and manufacturing.  

It follows Business NSW’s most recent survey of 900 of the state’s enterprises which has revealed concerning statistics, including:

• 30% of small businesses will have to close if the next NSW Government does nothing to improve business conditions;
• 82% believe politicians in NSW are not taking steps to address the needs of business;
• 43% identified housing as a barrier to accessing skilled workers (whether it is availability or affordability);
• 26% considered the rising cost of doing business as having an extremely severe impact on their business by restricting it from operating at its full potential.

Business NSW Executive Director David Harding said enterprises are still recovering from the pandemic.

“Businesses have been left on the brink because of factors including inflation at record levels, soaring interest rates, energy prices, insurance costs, changes to the industrial relations landscape and significant tax burdens,” Mr Harding said.  

“The challenges for NSW businesses are very real – and many of these challenges are beyond the NSW Government’s control. But there is a lot that our state politicians can do. 

“The We Mean Business policy platform is one that, if fulfilled, will give the local hairdresser the confidence to hire a new apprentice and invest in their skills development.

“It will give manufacturers in Western Sydney the impetus to buy that new piece of kit that will help drive innovation.

“And it will give young entrepreneurs the inspiration to give birth to the next great start-up right here in regional NSW.”

As the peak representative of all NSW business communities, Business NSW says it is time the next government makes a commitment to:

• Ensure there is no increase in the tax burden for businesses in NSW;
• Lower the payroll tax rate from 5.45% to below 5% and increase the threshold to at least $1.3 million;
• Stop making employers pay for icare’s poor performance and reform the NSW workers compensation scheme to fix the broken system;
• Increase our skilled migration visa program intake from 15,000 to 30,000; 
• Offer an additional 100,000 fee-free apprenticeships and 70,000 fee-free traineeships to boost skills here at home;
• Deliver the natural gas production we need in NSW and build the energy network to connect a minimum of 13GW of renewable generation by 2035;
• Establish an industry audit of manufacturing capabilities within the first 100 days after the election to strengthen NSW manufacturing capacity for critical goods with stronger supply chains;
• Establish a $1.3 billion government-backed venture capital (VC) fund to nurture start-ups in NSW;
• Grow the allocation of government procurement to small and medium businesses to over $10 billion per annum.
• VIEW WE MEAN BUSINESS CAMPAIGN