05/10/2026
Thank you Tegan Natoli for so eloquently expressing what has become an urgent and, quite frankly, diabolical situation for small businesses.
In just the past few months, we have personally watched five businesses immediately neighbouring us close their doors under financial pressure. Five. And that doesn’t even begin to account for the cries for help I hear almost daily from other local business owners who are barely hanging on.
We are tired. We are exhausted. Many of us are sacrificing our own wages and livelihoods just to keep our doors open and our staff employed.
We rely on long weekends. We rely on people getting out and spending locally. Those stronger trading periods are what help carry us through the weeks when there is barely a sale.
And yet, quite frankly, this long weekend has been worse for us than a regular weekday.
We rely on fair margins to survive, yet customers are understandably looking for discounts because they too are feeling the cost-of-living pressure. There are days when businesses are discounting so heavily that we are making virtually nothing — and sometimes actually losing money — simply because we desperately need cash flow.
How much more are small businesses expected to absorb?
Higher costs. Higher wages. Higher utilities. Higher insurance. Higher rents. Higher interest rates. Higher supplier costs. And customers with less disposable income.
When do small businesses get a break?
We don’t want handouts. We want an economy in which small businesses actually have a fighting chance to survive.
From where I stand, we desperately need change — and yes, I am begging for an early election. In my experience, we start to see some breathing room under a Liberal government, only to feel that progress unravel again under Labor.
This isn’t just politics to us. This is our livelihood. Our homes. Our staff. Our families. And our future.
Small businesses are the heart of our communities, but hearts cannot keep beating indefinitely without support.
Please start listening to us before there are even more empty shopfronts and “FOR LEASE” signs where thriving local businesses once stood.
