Take the risks, reap the rewards is a lesson for all
RISK is a four-letter word that has broad implications.
Businesses take risks on a daily basis while government is predominantly risk adverse. The nett effect when the two philosophies collide is a protracted and often frustrating series of negotiations that at times don’t arrive at a definitive decision or deliver a compromise that is less than satisfactory.
Business must survive in a highly competitive marketplace where the rules are fluid, change becomes a necessity and innovation is time senstive.
Governments’ risk adverse predisposition has resulted in a maze of green and red tape creating a landscape that can both challenge and threaten the viability of not just business but job creation and growth.
While government, and in that I include the opposition, has a duty to uphold the rights of employees, it should also give equal consideration to the rights of those who create that employment. Over-regulation can be just as destructive as none at all.
A trend has emerged in the mix of challenges business faces: Class politics where business success is depicted as suppression and exploitation of the so-called working class.
Smart and successful business operators understand and acknowledge that their employees are the backbone of their business and without them their business would not be where it is today.
The relationship between business and employee is symbiotic, each dependent on the other to achieve the best outcome.
The strength of the Australian character is based on having a go and taking opportunities.
Being given a fair go should not be equated with a have and have not mentality. The difference involves risk. Those who risk by putting it all on the line have earned the success they achieve.
To find that balance, government must fully understand the challenges business faces in recognising that risk is what takes us forward by increasing employment, communal wealth and the capital necessary to build the infrastructure we need to go forward. Nothing ventured, nothing gained comes to mind.
A week of political turmoil and instability presents an opportunity to put the old book aside and begin writing a new one.
We can’t change the past but we can learn from it through maturity and the pursuit of a common goal where the welfare of our nation takes precedence over political considerations.
Only time will tell if we have learned anything at all. Is government prepared to take the risk?
If so, over the next six to eight months the government will write the opening chapter as the author of a brighter and stable future.
BOB JANSSEN, PRESIDENT GOLD COAST & HINTERLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE