Businesses ‘burdened’ by red tape

Forrest MHR Nola Marino has invited South West small businesses to identify areas of red tape that affect employment growth and productivity, saying business owners are ‘‘suffocating’’ under regulation and compliance increases.

When the Barnett Government was elected in 2008, reducing bureaucracy was a major election platform.

Mrs Marino said small businesses were the engine room of the economy and that red tape was taking business people away from their families and hindering them from growing their businesses.

According to an Australian Bureau of Statistics’ report released on February 16, there are more than 2700 businesses in Bunbury which employ 19 people or less.

More than 2200 are also spread through the surrounding shires of Dardanup, Capel and Harvey.

Mounting red tape forced former South West chartered accountant and financial planner Kim Royce to withdraw from his accountancy practice and enter a new line of work in tourism.

‘‘Four or five years ago I decided to exit professional life—I have an accountancy practice, I’m a partner in an accountancy practice in Busselton, I also own a financial planning business in Bunbury, and I guess with the changes of the world and the red tape that’s come in, instead of spending time with people we spend probably 80 per cent of our time on just red tape,’’ Mr Royce told the South Western Times.

‘‘I like dealing with people, I don’t like being in the back room with mobiles and computers.’’

Mr Royce left corporate life and started Octopus’ Garden Marine Charters, which he said dealt with much less bureaucracy.

The State Government formed the Red Tape Reduction Group after winning the 2008 election to improve the quality of its regulation and to reduce the burden on the community.

In 2009 the group delivered a 200-page report to then treasurer Troy Buswell that revealed there were 844 Acts and 761 statutory rules in force, amounting to about 63,500 pages of regulation.

Mrs Marino will write to localbusiness leaders for their thoughts and encouraged small business owners to make a submission to her, which she would take to a taskforce the Coalition established last week.

It is expected to report its findings by July 1 next year.