Labor’s reshuffle message to SMEs

You could almost hear Opposition small business spokesman Bruce Billson rubbing his hands together when Senator Mark Arbib was handed the job of Small Business Minister after the departure of Nick Sherry.

Arbib is perhaps best known as one of the so-called “faceless men” who helped replace Kevin Rudd with Julia Gillard last year, and Bruce couldn’t wait to run through some of his best material.

“Hopefully Senator Arbib can take the knife he used on Kevin Rudd to slash red tape for small business,” Bruce warmed up with.

“Senator Arbib’s CV is completely detached from small business with his only experience turning the NSW ALP into a very small business.”

Yuk, yuk, yuk. He’s got a million of ’em.

Billson is right that Arbib doesn’t have a lot of obvious small business experience, but that doesn’t necessarily matter. Let’s face it, small business ministers at state and federal level are famous for dining out on some tangential SME experience – such as having worked for a small business or having a family member who runs one – that probably doesn’t mean much.

If you were in a particularly generous mood, you could even spin the “faceless man” thing in a positive way. Arbib wasn’t ranked number three on The Power Index’s list of Australia’s top political fixers for nothing (read Paul Barry’s searing profile of him for some more insights) but perhaps he will be able to get the small business cause in front of Labor’s key powerbrokers.

Or maybe not.

While we’re looking forward to sitting down with Arbib in the New Year, the impression we have right now is that he’s a very busy man with plenty on his plate.

As well as his major role in the Right faction of the NSW Labor Party, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s reshuffle has handed (some say rewarded) Arbib the crucial post of Assistant Treasurer and the important job of Small Business Minister to Arbib’s existing role as Minister for Sport. Oh, and he’s also the manager of Government business in the Senate.

Bruce Billson summed it up pretty well yesterday when he said: “I doubt there will be more of a focus on small business with Senator Arbib getting small business bolted on with his existing duties.”

I agree. As Bill Shorten and Nick Sherry have shown in recent years, the job of Assistant Treasurer is very important, particularly with the strong focus on tax. Arbib will now be responsible for overseeing the crucial work of the Business Tax Working Group and will also need to placate the retail sector over the GST threshold.

He’ll also have the very important duty of travelling to London for next year’s Olympics.

How much time will he get to dedicate to the small business portfolio? A third? A quarter?

Let’s hope it’s more, but Arbib’s workload makes it hard to say that Labor has really made small business a priority in this reshuffle.

The fact that the small business portfolio remains outside Cabinet is another mark against Labor. The Coalition has promised to do it. It’s hard to understand why Labor doesn’t match this commitment.

As we said, we look forward to talking with Arbib in the New Year about his vision for the small business portfolio. If you’ve got some questions you’d like us to ask, let us know in the comments below.