MEDIA RELEASE

 

ABBOTT’S WORK FOR THE DOLE DISASTER TO COST SMALL BUSINESS $700M A YEAR

 

The Abbott Government’s policy to force job seekers to apply for 40 jobs a month could result in a $700 million hit on small businesses across Australia, according to the Government’s own Business Cost Calculator.

 

Despite the Prime Minister promising again and again to cut red tape, he is actually wrapping thousands of small businesses up in more red tape – which will cost time, money and jobs.

 

Forcing job seekers to submit 40 job applications a month to qualify for their payment shows the Government has no understanding of small business.

 

Using the Government’s own Business Cost Calculator, Labor has calculated the massive cost Tony Abbott’s ill-informed policy wreak on small businesses.

 

Assuming that small businesses spend just one additional hour a fortnight processing the increased number of job applications, this policy will have an economic cost of nearly $700 million per year.

 

This means a $2.1 billion hit to small business over the three years of the program.

 

For the sake of a couple of tough-talking tabloid headlines, the Government is prepared to unleash a tsunami of unsolicited and underprepared resumes on the small businesses of Australia.

 

Instead of freeing up small businesses to do what they do best, Tony Abbott is turning them into desk clerks for his unfair and ineffective policy.

 

With this single decision, the Abbott Government has wiped out their claimed savings from the increasingly discredited “repeal day” – and obliterated the Abbott Government’s promise to be “open for business”.

 

The Abbott Government may be open for a few multinational corporations – but they are making it harder and harder for thousands of small businesses to get ahead.

 

This stupid policy is on top of Tony Abbott’s attempt to repeal Labor’s smart and fair tax breaks for thousands of small businesses.

 

The Abbott Government can’t be trusted to support Australia’s small businesses.

 

FRIDAY, 8 AUGUST 2014

 

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