Small Business Minister Craig Laundy: “People are slow to listen to government”

Small Business Minister Craig Laundy says as a businessman himself, he understands the priorities for smaller operators, but the challenge is getting them to listen to the government.

“People are slow to listen to government. A lot of them say, ‘government should just get out of our way’, and when governments spread a message, there is an element of a trust deficit,” Laundy tells SmartCompany.

The minister was reflecting on preliminary insights from the government’s Small Business Digital Taskforce, which was outlined in Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in December 2017 and has been headed up by Mark Bouris.

Laundy is also a member of the Taskforce, along with Assistant Minister for Finance, David Coleman, Suncorp’s Pip Marlow, Su McCluskey from the Foundation for Young Australians, Spiro Pappas from NAB and Gerd Schenkel from BGA Digital.

Tuesday’s federal budget allocated $500,000 to Laundy’s office from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s budget so a formal response can be tabled to the Taskforce’s investigation into whether SMEs are truly embracing digital technology. Read more

Emma Koehn - Smart Company - 11 May 2018