Originally published in The Daily Telegraph

Walk through any shopping centre today and you will see the warning signs of an economy under pressure with empty shopfronts, “For Lease” signs and small businesses struggling to survive.

Since the Albanese Government came to office, nearly 50,000 businesses have entered insolvency – that’s the equivalent of more than 30 businesses going bust every single day.

Make no mistake, small businesses are getting killed under Labor.

I hear the same thing from small business owners across Australia. They can’t afford Labor’s higher taxes, they can’t afford Labor’s higher power bills, and they can’t afford the additional costs of complying with all of Labor’s new red tape.

The reality is simple: it is not the government that creates wealth. It is the entrepreneurs, workers, farmers, manufacturers and small businesses who take risks, invest, employ Australians and build our economy, and generate the wealth that lifts us all.

Yet under Labor, government has grown bigger while Australians have been left worse off.

Spending is at a 40-year high outside the pandemic, fuelling inflation, higher interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis. Labor is saddling future generations with more than $1 trillion in debt while becoming the highest-taxing government in Australian history.

With a Budget full of toxic taxes, the Albanese Government’s socialist vision for Australia is now clear for all to see.

Labor is for wealth redistribution, not wealth creation. It attacks aspiration instead of backing those who create jobs, Labor has made it harder for Australians to get ahead.

More taxes. More red tape. More bureaucracy. More government interference.

And Australians are paying the price.

To stop Australia’s economic decline, we need to break free from big, fat government.

We need better, leaner government that gets the big things right, and gets off Australians’ backs

The Coalition’s plan to fix the economy starts with backing small businesses.

A Coalition Government I lead will axe Labor’s toxic taxes on small businesses, bring down power bills by scrapping Net Zero, establish a permanent $50,000 instant asset write-off for businesses with a turnover under $10 million, and expand access to capital gains tax concessions to thousands of small businesses.

We will cut unnecessary red tape, make it easier to start and grow a business, and ensure regulators are focused on encouraging competition, investment and productivity, not creating more hurdles for Australians who want to have a go.

Australia does not need bigger government. It needs a government that backs the people who do the hard work of building our economy.

Economic experience matters. A strong team matters. A strong plan matters.

Only the Coalition has the experience, the team and the plan to restore Australia’s economic strength, get businesses moving again and give Australians the opportunity to get ahead.

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