What about job creation?

The number of jobless is rising fast. This morning’s news that our unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to a worse-than-expected 5.7% in March will have economists in a frenzy as they recast their forecasts for unemployment upwards.

The Opposition will busy itself slamming the Government about its lack of focus on jobs.

But what I find astonishing is the complete lack of discussion about how to create new jobs.

Most new jobs are created by fast-growing companies. And other governments are spending a lot of time and effort to study these companies and create entrepreneurial policies to encourage them.  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of all people should know the role of fast growth companies in job creation – his wife Therese has personally created thousands of jobs!

But under his watch, many useful programs to help entrepreneurial companies have been cut, and funds directed to prolong the dying days of the car industry. Statistics around job creation are almost non-existent after research studies have been cut. And while there is a lot of focus on small business, there is little on entrepreneurs, the true job creators.

It is time that Australia understood the role that entrepreneurs play in job creation and develop policies to assist them create new jobs rather than penalise them through taxes like payroll tax every time they put on a new staff member.