What difference will a Coalition government make to business?

9 August, 2010

This question used to be one of the easiest to answer in politics. The Coalition were the pro business party offering to lower taxes with less regulation and were for the most part anti union.

It seems now that the political landscape has changed. Just as the Labor party now embraces business, the Coalition has abandoned Work Choices and all that it stood for.

The real difference between the parties is in the way they believe government should intervene in the economy.

Labor’s response to the GFC demonstrated its preferred method of rolling out large scale infrastructure projects to create jobs. The national broadband project is a great example of this approach.

Labor believes that by creating jobs during the roll out, from hole diggers to planners, this will have a positive effect on business and industry competing in a global market. Labor fundamentally believes that you can only get this type of project of the ground under government auspices.

The Coalition’s approach is to limit government spending on infrastructure to the traditional roads, rail and hospitals. This is evidenced by its commitment to cancel the NBN and to dump the Super Clinic program of the ALP, and instead focus on methodologies of delivery that puts money into service providers’ hands. This is done in the belief that it is more efficient and that individual providers are better placed to determine where the market is.

In terms of business then, it seems that if you are in the building and construction industry you are better served by a Labor Government. If you are in Professional services you are better served by the Coalition.