But as most parts of Australia enter the recovery phase, the capacity for the government to fund ongoing stimulus measures will need to be wound back. It will be a challenge for the government to ease reliance on stimulus spending without endangering small businesses.
While the pandemic has been tough on the vast majority of small-to-medium businesses, many have also reported several benefits to come out of COVID-19 operations, including increased improvements to operations such as more flexible ways of working and faster adoption of online services.
Many of the levers available to government, such as lowering the company tax rate and cutting red tape, were cited by Business Monitor survey respondents as measures they would most like to see in this year’s Federal Budget.
The ABS Business Impacts of COVID-19 Survey shows that government support is just as important as customer demand in influencing capital spending for small businesses. Getting this balance right is critical for Australia’s small businesses. There is no better time for governments at all levels to pull every lever to support small businesses and the wider economy.
