MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO – 13 October 2017

THE ATO BOGEYMAN: To fix the problem about ‘Caesar judging Caesar’, where small business is concerned, Robert Gottliebsen, in the article copied below says: “If Malcolm Turnbull and Arthur Sinodinos want to fix the problem they first need an independent body or system — not a kangaroo court — to assess small business claims in a low cost way. However I fear the power corruption in the ATO is so deep that further action may now be required. The two ministers involved and the taxation commissioner are like the three wise monkeys who “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.”

We totally agree, small business does not have the where-with-all or afford the cost involved in defending spurious allegations against small businesses by the corrupt ATO kangaroo courts. To put it bluntly we total support Gottliebsen’s contention: “If Malcolm Turnbull and Arthur Sinodinos want to fix the problem they first need an independent body or system — not a kangaroo court — to assess small business claims in a low cost way.” And, they should do so a matter of priority.

FAIR CONTRACTS: Writing in an article published under the heading ‘Malcolm Turnbull kicked off a new era in banking’ in The Australian on 11.10.17 (copied below) Robert Gottliebsen said: “On the morning of Monday September 14 [2015] the ALP, the Greens and the cross benchers in the Senate turned the Government’s totally useless fair contracts bill into proposed legislation that would transform vast areas of small business in Australia. It would greatly increase employment in the sector.” He goes on to say: “I am biased because I drove my readers to distraction campaigning for the legislation over the previous 18 months, but in my view Malcolm Turnbull has made no bigger non-defence decision in his Prime Ministership.

That sterling effort by Gottliebsen (and others including Ken Phillips) is to be highly commended, which in his words: “History will show he [Turnbull] transformed vast areas of business and in all, some eight million standardised contracts issued by large organisations to small enterprises employing less than 20 people will need to be changed.” So, if there exists a commendation gong for outstanding distinguished service to small business in the face of intractable enemies Robert Gottliebsen deserves one.

A CHAMPION FOR SMALL BUSINESS: On the 4 Oct 2017 under the heading ‘Business life built on ethics’ (copied below) The West Australian published an article “about con­tro­ver­sial builder Gerry Hanssen”. The article reports: “He’s trained 1000 ap­pren­tices in two decades, . . He says he wants to em­power young peo­ple to be­come in­de­pen­dent and self-gov­ern­ing and in­sists Hanssen trainees who have a Hanssen ca­reer will, from age 20 to 65, earn more than dou­ble a tradie else­where.” As a consequence, many have/will become small business people, and in spite of his busy work commitments he is also pres­i­dent of the Swan Cham­ber of Com­merce – Gerry Hanssen is without doubt a highly ethical champion for small business.

THE CHANGE IS HERE: The Swan Chamber of Commerce has announced a whole new team to relaunch the Chamber and provide quality service to inform, connect and empower collective change. They are: Kelly Marshall, General Manager; Karen Williams, Accounts Officer; Georgia Taylor; Communications Officer & Sebastian Rosati, Marketing Officer.