There's no disagreement, Yabby.

>>Politicians dreaming up a way to "help" an industry, are commonly a recipee for disaster. The best that they can do is cut red tape and let business do what it does best.<<

You betcha.

My point was exactly that. Joe Hockey had no interest in finding out from small business, what were their government-induced challenges.

He sidestepped key issues, such as what happened to all those promises that GST would replace payroll tax, like dog crap on the footpath.

Too busy swanning around in tropical resorts.

>>I guess I've just seen too much well meant Govt assistance thrown at industry, most of it wasted, even if the intentions were well meant.<<

Amen to that. I haven't had a solitary cent from the government since starting my first business, and expect none.

One of the reasons is that the rules that govern the handouts are actually designed to encourage failure. Only those truly hopeless cases, inevitably destined for the scrap-heap of business history, are able to qualify.

It's blindingly obvious why this is the case.

No-one in the public service has the faintest notion how any company operates, let alone small business. Asking them to produce a strategy that supports small business is like asking me to design a Large Hadron Collider.

Putting a common-or-garden snout-in-the-trough politician in charge simply carries on the tradition.

I made no claim regarding Hockey's competence or effectiveness. What is quite clear is that he's far more electorally attractive than his cohorts on the Opposition front bench, and thus would likely attract votes if made their leader. Needless to say, I don't regard the prospect of an electorally popular Coalition very favourably.

Cornflower, we know you hate the Greens, but this thread's about the Libs. Start your own thread if you want to just slag off at the Greens.