Our rental costs, labour costs, regulations, penalty rates, dozens of other hidden costs, online competition have all contributed to a hellish retail environment. It costs to much to do business in Australia. Amazon can turn over billions and pay pennies in tax. The overheads are some of the highest in the world and tax system makes business non competitive. We have a troubled manufacturing industry for obvious reasons. You can’t compete with China or India or with dozens of other countries who have cheap labour. The shop owners won’t drop the rent because it drops their yield and value. I’ve seen 8 new empty shops in the last year where I live. It’s a good area with growth, but the shops are going empty. Politicians really need to do more to help business and get with the program. I don’t think Labor even had policies on small business at the last election except to raise taxes.
