In the most recent Cabinet reshuffle, the Member for Reid, Craig Laundy was appointed Minister for Small and Family Business, The Workplace and Deregulation in January 2018.
The third generation publican has run his family business for over 25 years and hopes to inject his own personal insights into the new role.
Ricardo Goncalves caught up with the Minister at the Horse and Jockey Hotel in Homebush.
RG: How did your family business get started?
CL: Our family business was started by our grandparents Arthur and Veronica Laundy. My grandfather used to tell the story that at the end of every day he'd have a beer at the pub and he used to see the pub owner buy a bigger and better car each year.
He said, “Hang on there's something in this!” So in 1949, they basically sold everything they owned and took a lease on the Sackville Hotel in Rozelle, and some 73 years later my family is still operating the family business.
RG: You are quite big on social media with small businesses in your electorate. What are the issues they tell you about?
CL: The top of the list is power prices. I was in Caribbean Charcoal Chicken I asked the business owner, “When was the last time you called your power provider and haggled?” and we did that right there on the phone and got 30% off his power bill.
That’s $200 to $300 a month extra that goes back in his kick or towards employing more people in his shop. My message is very pragmatic as well. It’s not a really a policy setting. It’s from my background of having to haggle for what we get in our family business.
RG: A big issue we hear about is late payments, and we know there's a national payments transparency register, but it’s still quite small. What can you do about that?
The minister with Ricardo Goncalves. Source: Supplied
CL: Push and advocate for the uptake in it, and lead by example as well.
We’ve now got that well under 30 days and that is as government should be – efficient.
If we are going to ask other businesses to do the same, we should be pushing within our own backyard to do so and that is what we’ll continue to do.
RG: The 2018 Budget is coming out soon - will small business be in focus?
CL: Watch this space - yes it will be.
When you put more money in their pocket, the reality is they reinvest in their business, they grow their business, and what happens at the back of that?
We employ more people, and that’s how you get 403,100 jobs delivered in the last 12 months, 75 per cent of which are full-time jobs. That’s why it’s so important that element of our tax plan continues to roll out.
RG: What’s your secret to small business success?
CL: Never forget where you come from.
Small and family businesses in this country should be lauded for their success. They take on bank debt, they put their home on the line, they back themselves and they employ people and that is a hell of a story.
If a Pay-As-You-Earn taxpayer loses their job, they start looking for a new job. If a small business operator loses their job, they will most likely lose their home - that's the gravity and significance of this portfolio.
I get it because I’ve done it, and I' m going to represent it as faithfully and loudly as is physically possible.
RG: What’s your secret to pulling a beer?
CL: I always say, once you learn how to pull a beer you never forget. Two pulls. You get the head on the first pull and the second pull is just to top you up.
