What about the job creators?

As we write this afternoon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is giving her keynote address at the Labor Party’s official campaign launch which, somewhat strangely, is actually being held towards the end of the election campaign.

As usual, Gillard looks polished and professional and while she is preaching to the converted today, it is quite an impressive performance.

But for entrepreneurs, there is something with what Gillard has claimed is at the centre of her campaign – the broad theme of “jobs”.

After a nice little anecdote about her father’s fight to get his first job upon arriving in Australia, Gillard announced she had a “comprehensive plan for jobs”.

“I’ve been talking about jobs all this election campaign, because I believe in work. I believe in the benefits and dignity of work,” Gillard told the crowd.

“[In the GFC] we said we were for jobs, and I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”

Fine sentiment, Prime Minister, and one that few could argue with.

But just one question – who is actually going to create those jobs?

While Gillard’s “plan” covered the crucial areas of education, skills training (through the three-year-old trade training program) and even the National Broadband Network, there was very little said about what a Gillard Government would do to support SMEs, who employ one in two Australians.

All Gillard could point to was the Government’s plan to cut company tax by 1% to 29%, although this is funded by a separate tax on business (the mining tax), which doesn’t come in until 2013 and won’t actually help two thirds of Australia’s small businesses that are not incorporated.

Neither party have done a good job presenting policies that will actually support businesses in the next 18 months, when most entrepreneurs will be battling a still fragile economy.

Indeed, with just four full days of campaigning left, Labor is yet to announce a specific small business policy.

Gillard and all of our political leaders need to understand what entrepreneurs know only too well – talking about jobs is easy, creating them is very, very hard.