03/09/2026
SMALL BUSINESS IS BEING SQUEEZED. AND THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH LEFT
If you have a local café you love, a butcher, hairdresser, bakery, florist, beauty salon or independent retailer — please support them.
Because right now, small business is doing it bloody tough.
And this isn't a whinge. The numbers tell the story.
From 1 July, minimum award wages increased by 4.75% (nice little pay rise for the Govt in this one with increased PAYG)
Superannuation is now 12%
Then there is PAYG, payroll tax, workers compensation and insurance.
Rent has increased.
Electricity and gas have increased.
Freight and delivery have increased.
Ingredients, stock and packaging have increased.
Repairs, maintenance, accounting and compliance costs have increased.
And the cost of accepting card payments is being pushed on to the business effective 1st October - the surcharg is still there, just being paid by the business, while Banks continue to make record profits.
Almost every cost associated with simply opening the doors has gone up.
Now, none of this is an argument against paying people properly. Good staff deserve good wages.
But every increase has to come from somewhere.
And there comes a point where a small business simply cannot absorb any more.
We keep hearing that Australia has more businesses operating than ever before.
And technically, that's true.
But the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released in August, provide some very important context.
Australia gained 85,130 actively trading businesses in 2025–26
Of that increase, 83,105 were non-employing businesses — businesses that don't employ staff.
The number of businesses actually employing people increased by just 2,025 — or 0.2%.
And perhaps most significantly, the ABS recorded a net movement of 28,127 surviving businesses from employing to non-employing during the year.
That doesn't tell us why those businesses stopped employing people, and it would be wrong to pretend that it does.
But when we're being told that increasing business numbers demonstrate the strength of Australia's business sector, surely it's reasonable to look a little deeper.
More businesses does not necessarily mean more businesses employing Australians.
And that distinction matters.
Small businesses employ more than 5 million Australians and account for around 39% of Australia's private-sector workforce.
Yet small business owners are continually being asked to absorb one increase after another.
We're not asking to be protected from competition.
We're not asking to be guaranteed a profit.
We're asking for an environment where it remains viable to employ people, pay them properly, pay our suppliers, pay our taxes and still have something left for the person who owns the business, carries the debt and takes the risk.
Because there is a limit to what can continually be taken out of a small business.
Eventually prices go up.
Trading hours get cut.
Staff numbers reduce.
Investment stops.
Owners work more hours themselves.
And eventually, some simply shut their doors.
So next time your local café puts a coffee up 30 cents, your hairdresser increases their prices, your butcher costs a little more than the supermarket or your favourite independent shop can't compete with an online multinational — please think about what's happening behind those prices.
Most small businesses aren't making enormous margins.
They're trying to stay viable.
They're employing your kids.
They're sponsoring your sporting clubs.
They're donating the raffle prize.
They're supporting local charities and schools.
They're remembering your coffee order.
They're giving young people their first job.
And they're bringing life to our main streets and communities.
Buy the coffee.
Use the local butcher.
Book the independent hairdresser.
Shop at the family-owned store.
Support the local café
Because supporting small business isn't just a nice sentiment anymore.
It's becoming essential to their survival.
And once they're gone, they're bloody hard to get back.
