Originally published in The Canberra Times

By Bruce Billson

The government's Economic Reform Roundtable kicks off tomorrow, and I am optimistic that real outcomes with positive and lasting impact on small and family businesses are in reach.

And they need to be.

Operating conditions have been tough for small businesses over the past few years, although pleasingly, we have seen some recent signs of improvement, the first glimmer since August 2022.

This was off the back of earlier rate cuts, and I am hopeful that the RBA's cut to the cash rate by 0.25 per cent last week will create more momentum for our enterprising and entrepreneurial small and family business owners.

Small businesses have shown relentless enthusiasm and seemingly endless resilience over the past few years to provide opportunities, create livelihoods and support economic uplift in their communities.

Improvements in the operating environment are necessary to bolster success prospects for enterprising people to encourage growth and investment in their businesses, employees and customers.

Small businesses have always been vital contributors to our national economy - comprising almost 98 per cent of Australian businesses, providing two in five private sector jobs, and one in three dollars generated by our economy.

But as operating conditions have become more challenging and regulations more complex and burdensome, the small business share of Australia's economic contribution has fallen compared to decades past.

Left as things are, I fear that we will continue sleepwalking into a "big corporate" economy.

Can the economic reform roundtable provide hope, reassurance and encouragement for the small and family businesses that frankly are the "economy" of our suburbs and regions?

Yes, it can. But it will need the concerns, interests and aspirations of small and family businesses to be heard and at the front of mind, and not just over the next few days.

A "small-business lens" embedded in reform proposals, policy formation, program design and regulatory impact evaluation and compliance support, will pay dividends right across the economy.

Just like the maxim: "Look after the cents and the dollars will take care of themselves" - so it is for the economy.

Look after small business and the economy will take care of itself. It will serve our nation well.

The roundtable will be very worthwhile if all the impressive delegates have small business bright on their radar screens throughout their deliberations.

But will they? There are few delegates who were invited because they live and breathe the life of small-business people.

There has been no shortage of considered reform ideas and initiatives being proposed by the small business community.

It was pleasing to see so many small-business champions, professional bodies, industry associations, and financial digital service providers contributing so willingly and constructively at the recent pre-roundtable roundtable assembled by the energetic and engaged Minister for Small Business, the Hon Dr Anne Aly.

With all of this pre-roundtable input, it is concerning that there is only a single mention of small business across all three of the discussion papers for the roundtable.

Was that all that was warranted for this vital and vibrant pillar of our economy?

And this single mention was in reference to extending the instant asset write-off measure for another year, while there is a chorus of calls from the small-business community to make this measure more generous and durable.

To quote tennis great John McEnroe after a bad line-call: "You cannot be serious!"

Right-sizing regulation, inspiring investment, better embracing technology, encouraging innovation and energising enterprise - all will lay enduring foundations for workplace productivity, future prosperity and a sustainable uplift in living standards for all Australians. This is the business of the roundtable and must be key objectives against which progress can be measured.

In May this year, when the Productivity Commission opened consultation on reform areas to boost productivity, we encouraged the Commission to think about early-stage tax incentives to support new and emerging businesses when they are most vulnerable. We also suggested exploring what resources could support small businesses to quickly deepen their use of digital tools and deploy AI to gain maximum benefit, and consider how the federal government could better engage with small businesses. These are positive and actionable outcomes, which I hope can be fully explored at the roundtable.

And let's not turn our back on an inalienable truth - productivity happens in the workplace.

With 93 per cent of employing businesses being small businesses, lifting productivity means the sector presents an extraordinary opportunity and will play a very significant role in pursuing this goal.

The needs of small businesses deserve specific consideration. They are not "shrink-wrapped" versions of big businesses with extensive legal or human resource departments to manage the crippling regulatory burden or increasingly complex and prescriptive workplace relations regimes. They are the small firms, independent contractors and self-employed people who are vital to economic adjustment and wealth creation.

By assuming that small business experience aligns with the broad macro-economic analysis, "helicopter-view" commentators fail to recognise the strengths, needs and challenges of the sector. This results in (often quite unintentionally) diminishing the appreciation of what small businesses are contributing, contending with and could deliver with the right policy settings, to the nation's path to sustainable growth, prosperity, innovation and opportunity.

I hope that all the representatives at the roundtable can keep front of mind the creation of the most supportive economic ecosystem for all businesses to succeed - when they are discussing "right-sizing" regulation, incentivising business to take risks, invest and innovate, ensuring a fairer and competitive marketplace, improving access to finance and exploring how technology and digital tools enhance business growth.

If we treat the roundtable as an opportunity for big business, unions and government to barter and trade off various reform ideas so that "consensus" can be proclaimed, we risk leaving small business out in the cold and to fend for themselves.

Small businesses will continue to make their vital economic contribution and contend with the many "headwinds" in these challenging times, but knowing that the chance to put wind in their sails through tangible, supportive and right-sized reform was passed up.

Or roundtable participants can demonstrate that they truly "see" small business as key partners in Australia's economic reform journey, that the sector's contribution is valued, and the reform is aimed at creating the best conditions for Australian small businesses to thrive.

The roundtable is an opportunity to send a powerful and clear message that small-businesspeople, and those who walk and work alongside them, really matter, and they are very much central to any conversation about how to lift Australia's growth, productivity, innovation and living standards.