Mixed messages

After last week’s tumultuous political events, there are probably plenty of people hoping for a more quiet period from Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.

Don’t bet on it – we are now in the middle of the election campaign you have before you have an election campaign, with Gillard trying (and succeeding quite brilliantly) at establishing her position and Tony Abbott trying to steal some of the momentum back.

Unfortunately, both made some pretty dumb statements on the weekend which won’t have endeared them to SME voters.

Tony went first, telling ABC television that 2% cut in the company tax rate due to kick in from 2012 wouldn’t be noticed by most businesses.

Tony, we’re not sure what you’re experience is in running a business, but any sort of tax relief – from company tax, from stamp duties, from FBT, from payroll tax – is welcome and does make a difference.

As many employer groups have pointed out, the 2% company tax rate cut was the big bone thrown to small business out of the Henry Tax Review.

Abbott’s point was the Resources Super Profits Tax would have a far bigger impact on the economy than the company tax rate, but he needs to realise that SMEs aren’t going to be impressed with these sorts of dumb statements.

New Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave an interesting take on population and immigration yesterday when she moved away from Kevin Rudd’s “big Australia” vision and instead focused on what she is calling “sustainable population”.

Using phrases like “protecting the Australian way” and “the right kind of migrants”, Gillard said she wanted to “take a breather” on population growth.

“We still have an approach about getting the migration settings right, about meeting our needs for skilled labour, but I also want to see us do it sustainably and I want to see us emphasise the skills and training of our own people,” she told Channel Nine.

Coming days after Kevin Rudd warned he would not be party to a “lurch to the right” on the issue of asylum seekers, Gillard’s statements are seen as a way of addressing perceptions of voter backlash against Rudd.

However, as the Urban Taskforce has pointed out, limiting population growth could result in economic growth dropping by half over the next 40 years and would be particularly dangerous given the labour shortages we are facing.

We’re almost certain Gillard is establishing a sort of policy philosophy rather than pre-empting a change to actual policy, but it certainly is a strange message – particularly from a Labor Prime Minister.

But the award for the biggest mixed message must surely go to Apple chief Steve Jobs.

Just weeks after praising the new external antenna on the new iPhone as a work of engineering genius, Jobs has been confronted with customer complaints that the antenna is poor, and doesn’t work very well when held in a certain way.

His curt reply to this emailed complaint? “Just avoid holding it that way.”

Steve, you’re supposed to be the head of best tech company in the world, and that’s your advice? Why didn’t you just design a better antenna, or perhaps do a bit more testing?

When people buy these so-called “revolutionary” devices, it’s reasonable to expect they will work. And if they don’t you’d better show that you’re determined to fix them.