Ms Gillard

Congratulations on your new post.  I wish you every success as Australia’s first female prime minister.

I write to you as a small business owner who despite the odds, succeeded in opening two new businesses in the midst of the global financial crisis.  I have 31 staff, 2 of them permanent and 29 of them casual.  It has been a great joy to employ these young people and bring employment and first jobs to many of them in our local community.

I have invested $350,000 in one new business and $90,000 in the other.  No small investment for a mother of four young children.  If I fail, we lose our house.  I was hoping that by the end of our first year of trade we would be ‘breaking even’.  I work six days a week in the business and on the seventh day I tackle the paperwork.

This week your new award system ‘kicks in’.  

I have spent many sleepless nights in the last weeks wondering how I am going to keep the staff I have, especially those over 20 years of age, in their jobs.  I do not believe I will be able to trade on Sundays, but closing that day will make meeting my weekly sales target impossible to sustain the rent. I really wonder how my business is going to survive.  Even Saturdays, it will now be hard to break even.

Six months from now when University students can no longer find weekend work to fit around their study, when cafes close because they cannot achieve what is being asked of them and only those who continue to run the gauntlet and ignore the awards remain, someone will realise what a terrible mistake has been made. 

I urge you to assess immediately how these new awards are going to effect small business.  Please.

Yours sincerely,
Brisbane Small Business Owner