“One of the key issues in regional Victoria is that Melbourne is being promoted and the population is increasing in Melbourne because there is incentivisation there for small business. Then we’re having people moving from the country, so we have a dwindling pool of workers.
“We’re also very short on housing, so it’s very difficult to incentivise people to move to the country.”
Mr Clark said business owners outlined some of their primary cost-of-living-related struggles.
“Insurance is a big one. The cost of insurance has gone up exponentially. One guy who is running a caravan park had his insurance go up from $5000 about six years ago to just under $25,000 this year,” he said.
“Insurance is a massive overhead – $5000 you can pick up as a business relatively easily, but $25,000 is a huge chunk of money.”
“Increasing taxes, especially payroll tax, was another one. The more people you’re employing and the more money you’re turning over, the more the tax increases, so it seems to disincentive small businesses.
“We discussed the fact that as public sector employment is increasing as a percentage of the overall workforce, you’ve got a dwindling pool of private business that is paying all the tax that pays for public sector workers.”
Ms Hume said businesses were caught in a ‘pincer movement’.
“They’re being squeezed by high prices of energy, complex industrial relations laws, overregulation and higher taxes, and they’re the ones that are paying the price. These guys are at the coalface ... they face those problems every day, so of course they’ve got ideas of how to fix it,” she said.
“That’s why having forums like this is so important.”
Mr Tehan said growing Ararat’s population would be crucial to its business future.
“We’ve got to incentivise business to invest here, and the best way we can do that is by making sure we’ve got the population,” he said.
“We’ve had a million people come to Australia in the last two years, yet they’re all going to Melbourne and Sydney, and now we’ve got real housing issues and rental issues.
“We’ve got to be settling those people out into the regions and then businesses will invest because they know that there’s people they can employ.”
Mr Clark said the forum also discussed several positive aspects of doing business in the Ararat region.
“We’re very privileged that Ararat has one of the strongest regional chambers of commerce,” he said.
“We’ve got a really good relationship with our local council and Dr Tim Harrison, our council chief executive, is very proactive and progressive when it comes to pushing forward local business and investment in the region.
“We’ve got some exciting businesses coming into the region, so it wasn’t just a pitchforks and torches issue – people wanted to have a constructive conversation that was positive.”
The entire September 25, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
The entire September, 25, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!
