Our beleaguered retailers need a helping hand, not further blows

POLITICIANS love small businesses. They appoint a token junior minister (John Perry), with special responsibility for their needs.

Ministers like to be photographed at ISME or Small Firms Association conferences/dinners. They empathise with family businesses and local entrepreneurs, citing them as the backbone of an enterprising ethos.

Rhetoric and sympathy falls short when it comes to governance. This hypocrisy is most evident in the retail sector, where 35,000 jobs have been lost over the past five years. A further 30,000 frontline jobs in local indigenous ventures are in peril through an accumulation of public policies.