Pauline Hanson's One Nation, 1998 Queensland State Election
Preamble
1. One Nation acknowledges small business is the major employer in Australia, and therefore policies affecting small business have a direct impact on employment levels.
2. One Nation believes laws and procedures affecting small business should not compensate for incompetence; rather, they should be structured to encourage new businesses, to support existing businesses, to facilitate small business expansion, to ensure fair competition and to provide as much protection as practical from the unscrupulous.
Retail Tenancies
3. One Nation recognises market forces will directly control rent levels; however, there have been many instances where business failures can be directly attributed to sinister lease conditions, and to exorbitant rents and other charges being levied against tenants in retail centres.
4. One Nation will initiate a detailed assessment of legislation which can be used to protect all parties who are signatories to lease agreements.
5. Two of the factors which will be considered are the need for a full, clear and precise disclosure of all rental and associated charges, and the need for lessee friendly renewal options. Rents and charges must be precisely qualified; terms such as 'reviewed' will need to be replaced by quantifiable conditions, and those conditions must provide for increases as well as decreases if, for example, the CPI is a negative amount in particular areas.
Finance
6. Australian Bank. One Nation will initiate an analysis at federal level of the feasibility of establishing a truly national bank for the purpose of providing small Australian businesses and primary producers with low interest loans under favourable repayment conditions, and low interest overdraft facilities. In the short term One Nation will seek the establishment of a Queensland Trust Fund for the purpose of supporting employment initiatives, and has allocated funds accordingly - see the One Nation Employment Initiative.
Protection of Sub Contractors
7. At present, sub-contractors and suppliers in the building industry carry nearly all of the risk in the event of failure by builders. For the past 25 years, governments have tried to fix the problem through a number of measures including tougher licensing to ensure participants have adequate technical skills, financial capacity and business acumen. However there is still no protection for sub-contractors and suppliers when business failure does occur.
8. One Nation places such importance on this issue that a separate policy statement has been prepared.
Unfair Dismissal Laws
9. One Nation recognises the importance of protecting employees from unscrupulous employers; however the present legislation treats employers unfairly, and is one of the reasons for the increase in the employment of casual labour.
10. One Nation will take whatever action it can at both state and federal level to address anomalies in the legislation which allows dishonest employees to use it to protect themselves from the consequences of irresponsible or poor quality work practises which enable employees to have an unfair advantage over a failing business.
Status of Unions and Enterprise Bargaining
11. One Nation policy is to support enterprise based unions, and encourage enterprise bargaining.
12. One Nation acknowledges the important role that unions have played in Australia. One Nation is concerned that employees are adequately represented when enterprise bargaining, and that state and federal governments establish minimum levels of wages and fundamental work conditions to protect Australian workers from the pressure which can be applied by employers, particularly when low cost labour is available from recent immigrants from countries with lower living standards than our own.
Worker's Compensation
13. An accurate assessment of the status of the Workers' Compensation fund is not available to One Nation at present. One Nation will give priority to developing procedures to enable thorough investigation of claims, and of long term recipients to ensure their continuing legitimacy. One Nation will take action to minimise the opportunity to defraud.
Trading Hours
12. One Nation will examine the issue of extended trading hours with the aim of seeking a balance between large and small business needs, and identifying the retail conditions which best service and provide for all the requirements of the community. In the interest of the people of Queensland, One Nation will favour Australian businesses over multinationals.
Government Bureaucracy
13. One Nation recognises the frustration small business has in dealing with government departments and complying with licensing and regulatory requirements. One Nation appreciates that the front counter retailer or sole trader has little chance of communicating by phone or in person with government departments during public service office hours.
14. One Nation will: