The Gold Coast is home to around 76,000 small businesses and is the fastest growing economy in the country.
As a small business owner myself, I understand the unique challenges currently facing our small businesses including rising operating costs, staffing constraints and transportation gridlock. We must do more to support and grow our small businesses on the Gold Coast.
We need a strong and resilient local and national economy. I will push for measures such as:
- Supporting the introduction of a tax-free threshold of $20,000 for small businesses - which will reduce small business tax bills by up to $5,000 per annum.
- Reducing energy bills by incentivising businesses to access solar and batteries and become energy efficient.
- Tying tax brackets to inflation to put more cash in the pockets of workers. By doing this, a taxpayer earning $90,000 per annum will get up to $800 back in their pocket each year.
- Making sure Australians get a fair return from our natural resources instead of giving them away to multinational gas corporations that pay little or no royalties.
Strengthening our local economy requires forward-thinking. My focus will be on driving economic diversification, innovation, and green industries while encouraging federal funding in infrastructure and transport, skills development and expansion of health care services. If we address affordable housing and cost of living pressures that our workers confront, we will ease the staffing shortages which are impacting small businesses.