Small business isn’t just “the backbone of the economy.”

It’s people.

It’s teams.
It’s families.
It’s owners lying awake at night working out how to make next week’s wages, rent and suppliers all line up.

I’ve spent my entire career in hospitality and tourism, and right now I employ 40 people. So when policy shifts, it doesn’t land in theory, it lands in real time, across real lives.

And right now, we are being asked to absorb cost after cost that sits completely outside of our control.

Not because we’re inefficient.
Not because we haven’t adapted.
But because the system keeps pushing pressure down to the smallest players.

Costs are up.
Demand is unpredictable.
Margins are already thin.

And instead of relief, we’re seeing decisions that remove our ability to recover those costs without actually reducing them.

That’s not reform.

That’s cost shifting.

And it’s pushing good businesses to the edge.

Across Australia, insolvencies remain elevated after a 39% surge in failures. Hospitality and tourism are right in the firing line. This isn’t a warning sign it’s already happening.

When small businesses go under, it’s not just a number.

It’s jobs gone.
It’s communities hollowed out.
It’s local economies losing the very businesses that make them worth visiting in the first place.

We don’t need handouts.

But we do need policy that understands reality.

We need:

Transparency around the costs being imposed on small business
A genuine plan to reduce, not just redistribute, those costs
And a seat at the table before decisions are made not after
Because right now, small business is being treated like a shock absorber.

And we’re running out of capacity to absorb anything.

This petition is about drawing a line.

It’s about saying clearly to Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Federal Government  that enough is enough.

Do better.

Design policy that reflects how businesses actually operate.
Understand the cumulative pressure we’re under.
And act before more businesses disappear.

If you run a business, work in one, or care about what small business brings to your community — this matters.

Sign the petition.

Stand with the people holding it together, day in, day out.

Before there’s nothing left to hold.