What if small businesses went on strike against Labor?

Small businesses are hurting (and closing) under Labor’s federal and state policies

Labor’s wealth redistribution and bracket creep realities are one result of the federal stage 3 tax cuts adjustments and reversals and fiscal settings that have led to bracket creep.

These effects, amid persistent inflation, are squeezing small business owners and their ability to retain staff or invest in future capabilities. Small businesses face higher effective burdens without the scale of larger firms. Yet they are carrying a proportionately higher regulatory burden.

ASIC has reported record revenue of some $830 million in fines. The NSW government is riding high on the back of increased revenue from fines including small businesses. This is set to continue.

Terry Barnes wrote in the Morning Double Shot newsletter:

Michael de Percy is right. Small businesses can’t thrive under federal Labor’s anti-private enterprise and high-taxing regime, let alone state Labor’s payroll and other job-killing taxes. And that’s not including onerous government-mandated paperwork and compliance. But speaking as a self-employed small business type, the costs of going ‘on strike’ against Labor’s incessant demands on my bottom line is having the Australian Taxation Office out to crush both me, and my ability to put food on the table for my family and keep the lights on. How I’d love to tell the ATO to get knotted, but they know they have me, and hundreds of thousands like me, by the short and curlies.

 My latest in The Spectator Australia, What if small businesses went on strike against Labor?

The Left are always on strike when they want something from Labor.

But what about Australia's small businesses?

The forgotten community, with no bargaining power, that employ nearly half the private workforce?

The small businesses that are suffering the worst financial burden… pic.twitter.com/G2CiLGqFZs

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 21, 2026

One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted

The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society. But, nuh!

The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society.

You hear it most clearly when the Prime Minister says Pauline Hanson should not ‘talk Australia down’ when overseas.

Life at Copacabana must be quite pleasant. Here in regional Australia, businesses are collapsing, people are struggling, and nobody is saying, ‘How great is Albo’s Australia!’

Yet the media’s focus is all on One Nation. It reminds me of most of the stuff coming out of universities these days.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Michael de Percy looked at the polls and said … The Establishment can’t be trusted! That’s because after a solid week of wall-to-wall screeching, One Nation has emerged with barely a dent.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy heads in a similar direction to James Allan, except he’s concluded the battle of ideas is over already, and One Nation has won it. In his view, the Establishment is trying to bring Hanson and One Nation down because they can’t recover their dominance any other way. Ironically, Hanson herself has been around politics so long that it could be said that she, herself, is part of the Establishment, or at least the political class associated with it. She knows how the system works, and plays the game accordingly.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted.

The attacks against One Nation keep coming ... but polling suggests it's having little impact on public opinion.

There are still many dimensions where One Nation needs to mature in its preparation for government, but I think most people have had enough of the present state of… pic.twitter.com/8zcp66jXCJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 20, 2026

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

They came after Pauline, they came after Barnaby, and now they are coming for Malcolm Roberts.

 The results of Labor’s economic meddling are in. Rents are going up, housing prices are coming down, mortgage repayments are going up, and Labor also briefly considered tinkering with the idea of charging capital gains tax on the sale of the classic car you’ve worked on forever. (They backed out of that last one pretty quick!) Your labour counts for nought of course.

(Unless you are at BHP, Australia’s biggest company, where 63 union members walked off the job in a strike that was meant to cripple the Pilbara. Quite the union hit job…? The final numbers are being debated and the unions are insisting it was a success.)

In other news, people are hearing about a tax on the sale of assets when one’s partner dies. Is this for real? Isn’t that called a death tax?

There are so many questions.

My latest weekly round-up in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss?

All we’ve heard this week is One Nation didn’t do this, and One Nation didn’t do that.

They came after Pauline, they came after Barnaby, and now they are coming for Malcolm Roberts.

Not one of these One Nation politicians has sent mortgages through the roof, put the cost of… pic.twitter.com/B11075Tpg2

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 18, 2026