Local businesses will spend less time navigating government red tape and more time getting on with what they do best under the latest business support commitment announced by The Nationals, according to candidate for Gippsland East, Gemma Rendell.
Ms Rendell said the plan would streamline the way businesses deal with government, including replacing Victoria’s current maze of 79 separate local business laws with one clear set of statewide rules and creating a single front door for businesses dealing with State Government.
“This is the latest in a strong package of measures we are taking to the election to back Victorian businesses by reducing taxes, cutting red tape and making government easier to deal with,” Ms Rendell said.
“Small businesses in particular don’t have teams of people sitting in offices filling out forms and chasing approvals. Every hour spent navigating government bureaucracy is an hour they are not serving customers, growing their business or creating jobs.
“Our approach is simple – the government should make it easier to do business, not harder.”
Under the plan, local business laws covering areas such as footpath trading, skip bins and construction sites will be standardised across Victoria, while councils will continue to administer and enforce the rules.
Service Victoria will also become a genuine one-stop shop for business approvals.
“For example, instead of a hospitality business dealing separately with planning, food registration, footpath trading and liquor licensing, it will be able to lodge one application, provide its information once and track its approvals through one platform,” Ms Rendell said.
A new Business Approvals Concierge will provide businesses with a single statewide point of contact to help coordinate approvals, resolve delays and sort out conflicting advice from different areas of government.
“This is about joining up government services so the business owner doesn’t have to do it themselves.
“If an approval becomes bogged down between different departments, agencies or levels of government, there should be one place a business can go to get help sorting it out.”
Ms Rendell said the reforms complemented The Nationals’ broader economic plan to make Victoria a better and more affordable place to operate a business.
“Our commitment is not to introduce any new or increased taxes. We will scrap Labor’s Emergency Services Tax, increase the payroll tax threshold to $1.2 million by 2028-29, reduce the metropolitan payroll tax rate to 4.8 per cent from 2030-31 and progressively restore the land tax-free threshold to $300,000.
“We will also restore energy choice for Victorian businesses and work to increase conventional gas supply to put downward pressure on energy costs.
“Taken together, these measures are about changing the way the government treats business,” she said.
Pictured: Gippsland East candidate, Gemma Rendell, discusses The Nationals’ small business support plans with Matt and Hayley Henderson from Fatty Matty’s Gelato in Bairnsdale.
