Robbie Wallace

Record business collapses… I am not surprised Stuart Ballantyne The Spectator Australia 30 April 2024 ******Excellent piece! A record 7,747 companies hit the wall in the first nine months of this financial year, according to last weekend’s Australian newspaper. Around the same time of the financial year, some 35 years ago, my wife and I were desperately scrambling to keep our company from collapse. 300 staff, an asset base of $14m, a full order book of small ship design, and builds worth $12m – all approved by the government’s Export Finance department. With an interest rate at the time of 22 per cent for an overdraft, what could possibly go wrong? However, the letter from the bank was clear, the overdraft of $2m was unacceptable and we were now on 24 hours’ notice to repay, as per the last line in the overdraft document. I had helped the then Minister for Trade, John Button, around the same time in preventing the closure of a Tasmanian shipyard, so I rang him for help in unblocking the slow export finance payments and to hold back the bank. He responded that very afternoon, apologising that despite appealing to bank, they (and other banks) were into the ‘wholesale slaughter of medium and small business’. The next day, the undertakers of the banking and finance industry, the Receivers, took the keys, the bank books, the cars, the house, and our office buildings. Our 13 years of effort came crashing down. It was quite a humbling experience and entirely unnecessary if the nation had the US Title 11 Bankruptcy re-organisation instead of the archaic UK Liquidation/receivership system. Three weeks later we were in a small rental in the suburb of Eagleby, south of Brisbane, with a borrowed ute, four sons at Christian schools, and a big golden retriever that ate more than the boys. Bundling the boys into the back of the ute, my wife reminded me this was illegal. ‘What more can they take from us? They already have the house, the car, the company, and all the assets.’ ALP Prime Minister Keating informed us this was the recession we had to have. As his ratings crashed, he set about distracting the media and the public with: ‘Let’s change the system, get rid of the Australian Flag, the monarchy, let’s have the recession we have to have and a banana republic!’ ‘Record Business Collapses’ blared the newspaper headlines at the time. I knew that very well, as many business friends were also swept up. As I stood in the dole queue in Beenleigh every fortnight, they would inform me that there were no vacancies for ship designers in the Beenleigh area and would approve my dole payment. Many of my friends abandoned their business dreams and just took secure government jobs, but as an obstinate Scot, I got back on the horse. It took us six years to fully recover, but this time we stayed away from banks, not even an overdraft, which is what caught us out last time. Cost of Living Crisis? If you want a full immersion povvo, penniless, and painful experience like the now over 8,000 business families that are going through receivership/liquidation this year, just keep endorsing Labor and Greens, and the insane policies that these fickle fools focus on. Take heed of my words: Keating, Rudd, and Gillard all spiked the rise in business collapses and if you don’t believe me, check it out! However, this Team Albanese, with the embedded DNA of ALP stupidity, is something else. Between Albo, Bowen, Burke and Wong, if they had a brain in their head, it would definitely be a stowaway! ‘Our Land Abounds in Nature’s Gifts…’ we sang last week at the Anzac Day services. Most small businesses are not gifted with anything and require long hours and dedication to create something from absolutely nothing. I take my hat off to anyone trying to build their own vision. Imagine being gifted the Leadership of Australia! A huge island nation with unimaginable mineral and agricultural wealth and an all-year-round climate for working and living. What an absolute gift indeed, to any vision-oriented leader! It’s a pretty easy job really, to implement policies that benefit the majority of Australians, using Nature’s Gifts to efficiently mine our minerals, create cheap energy, manufacture goods that are required to operate and defend the nation, to export products, and create wealth and harmony for our citizens. The alternative job is to implement policies that benefit the minority of Australians, who don’t like the flag, our history, our wealth, or having to work for wealth, our harmony, or anything at all. This same minority is trying to appease unelected bureaucrats at the United Nations and their unproven policies of climate change, gender bewilderment, and disharmony of the nation with mass immigration of people openly hostile to our values. These are the same minority who want to abolish Australia Day and Anzac Day! Wake up! This is Australia and we have a wonderful and colourful history that we should be embracing and perpetuating, not trying to pretend our history hasn’t happened just to appease the few malcontents. If you don’t like our Australian way, do not come here and attempt to change us! So the policies of Team Albanese, elected by a minority of 32 per cent, has been, and still is, totally focused on the unhappy and the lazy. They offer policies of division, new EPA laws disallowing activities with Nature’s Gifts (particularly coal and uranium), and Union control when it comes to running companies with obstructive IR rules. No wonder businesses are falling like flies, especially in regional Australia. Now that Albanese’s popularity is plummeting, like Keating, he grabs the ALP playbook to distract the media. Last week it was Elon Musk refusing to obey Julie Inman Grant. What will Albo’s red herring be for this week? His continued embarrassment by Pauline Hanson? So, to the 8,000 business families on the recent coal face ALP-inflicted cost of living crisis, don’t give up! I know the weak politicians always say ‘we’re all in this together’, but it is always small business that carries the burden of pain, as happened in the Covid lockdowns. We have a wealthy nation, we just need a strong leader, that is focused on what is needed and necessary for the majority. Don’t abandon your dream!