Last year I made a post about Rudd's razor gang that would target Australian government workers. It has come to light that the axe will fall on 70 small business field officers.
Labor has always claimed to be the champion of Aussie battlers – common every day Australians that work hard to make ends meet. Unfortunately, Labor does not hold small business operators in the same esteem, many of whom work staggering hours to stay afloat. In June 2004, of the 1.1 million full-time small business operators:
- 65.1% usually worked between 35 and 50 hours each week;
- 30.2% usually worked between 51 and 75 hours each week; and
- 4.7% usually worked more than 75 hours each week.
Source: Characteristics of Small Business, Australia (Reissue), 2004 – Australian Bureau of Statistics
This is hardly cutting "fat" in administration so that more can be "delivered to front-line services instead", as Rudd put it before the election. He has made a cut to government services that will directly affect hard working Australians whose businesses employ 3.6 million workers and generate 30% of the nation's economic activity.
