A few points;
In the US many shopping malls are closing, the tenants having gone broke.
There is even a web site about closed malls.

In the local centre there has been a small turnover, but it does seem to have increased.
The reason people have over committed is because the government insists
that lending authorities lend on two incomes.
Therefore developers produce houses that need two incomes to pay for them.
The winding back of small business means many of those 2nd incomes disappear.

Government services must decrease as the interest bill increases.
Our government dept is some $170 billion I believe.
However there are outstanding Aus Govt bonds of $250 billion.
These bonds are held by someone and they will want their interest
and their money back at some time.
This an overhead on Aus.com.au and we must suspend spending in other
areas until we can get it down to manageable levels.
That is what any business would have to do.
At present the solution is to print money, but strangely other
countries are finding that it does not work any more.
The other solution, stop all overhead (perks, entitlements) and apply
austerity measures, does not work either.
These two traditional economic measures now no longer work.
This is what has Europe and the US in trouble.
Because of our mining income we have put back the same thing happening
here, but I suspect we are now seeing the early signs that the rest
experienced from 2008.

work either !

The only thing keeping Australia afloat is the mining sector with some input from agriculture as well but really quite small employment numbers.
When ( not if) China hits the wall and reduces it's imports from the Australian quarry, thing will get very tough here.
This has nothing to do with labour or liberal governments except that they have both led us down the path of globalisation and deregulation and that has reduced out capacity to "go it alone".
If you think things are bad now, think of the fix the Greeks are in with Spain, Portugal, Ireland and eventually the rest of Europe.
Small business will survive but will have a hard time till the real GFC hits us.
Then as the rest of the world collapses into chaos, it will be time for small business here to step in and provide jobs again.
We are going to have to learn all over again how to "make things" instead of pushing paper around from office to office on fancy electronics but needs must.
The best thing that can happen would be the total disintegration of the banking sector and it's replacement with a solid government bank.

What a depressing thread.

Having started three modest businesses that have created a small but measurable level of employment for others in the past fifteen years, I don't believe the situation has changed that much. All three are still operating, by the way, thanks for asking.

When you start a business, you research, understand and take into account all the cost variables - overall cost of employment, including all those taxes, penalties and risks etc. - and factor them into your business plan.

If your revenue is likely to exceed your costs, people plus technology plus cost of capital - then you have the makings of a business. If they don't, then you don't. If you have to rely on government grants/handouts/special treatment, then you should think twice before starting it. Then walk away.

(This rule does not apply, of course, to businesses that suddenly make a mint from an amazingly coincidental government decision. Pace Mr Obeid. Allegedly)

Then again, if you are in a business where those variables have changed in a way that invalidates your plan, don't stand around whingeing and crying poor, get out as soon as you can.

The amazing thing is that the void you create by getting out will be very quickly filled by someone who has a greater hunger to make things happen, and/or a smarter appreciation of what constitutes a viable business, and/or a smarter way of operating that business.

Don't get me wrong here, I think the present government's IR policies suck, big time. There seems to be an almost willful blindness as to what business is all about, and this creates a few additional headaches that you need to take into account when starting your business. But don't forget also that Joe Hockey was once the Minister of Small Business and Tourism, and he was also totally ignorant when it came to the small business part of his portfolio.

He was great, on the other hand, at opening luxury resorts and being entertained by hotel management throughout the land. Smart enough, at least, to remain firmly in his comfort zone.

Pericles, the whole point of this thread is to highlite the fac that the uptake, thats this stepping up to fill the void, has declined to the tune of a staggering 95%.

This is where my concern lies, and if this trend continues, and there is no reason to suggest it won't, we will be in awful shape in five to ten years from now.

Even Martin Furgeson himself says many businesses are under extreme preasure due to cost blowouts. He refers mainly to big business, mining ect.

We must act now if we wish to save ourselves from what the likes of urope are going through, as once we loose mining growth, then what.

Close the gate when the horse has bolted rings a bell!

I don't know any sector that is happy with IR at present, and that's a good enough reason to start again.

Mining contributes 20% of GDP.
What is this 95% you are on about.
Business can only stay in business while they have patrons. If you bye on line, and imported stuff, you suffer the consequences.
Shopping malls are expanding in this state, it's the convenience factor.

I have just got back from a shopping trip to the local centre.
There is a building nearby soon to be demolished for home units.
One of the shops in the building has a guy trying to sell his trolley
bags. He used to be in a family business in the shopping centre and
three other centres. They have had to get out of the business and they
have all their stock there in this short term rental shop.
The bags are all being sold at very much lower than the price I had
seen in other shops.

He said that people are not traveling or making do with bags that they
already have. He was one of the turnover shops in the main centre.
This I suspect is very typical of what is happening in retail.

579, I think if you looked into it the shopping centre expansion you
mention it was probably contracted a couple of years ago.

Robert le Page said;
Small business will survive but will have a hard time till the real GFC hits us.

Probably true. Until China has a major production collapse nothing
much will change. That will probably not happen until energy prices
impact onto their GDP in a significant way.

Then small business will come into its own.
Not in shopping centres however, they will be closing as they have
started to in the US. How far into the future, who knows ?
It will not happen over night but it will happen.

There is no easy answer to all this and until governments realise
that the traditional tactics no longer work because the cost of energy
has taken up all and more of the national profit.
Even though energy costs had been doing that for some years they just
kept on borrowing believing that it was all temporary.
It is not it is PERMANENT !