{"id":194894,"date":"2017-11-09T01:35:09","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=194894"},"modified":"2020-08-11T12:43:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T02:43:48","slug":"mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_194896\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194896\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-194896\" title=\"20171108 Minister's Visit\" src=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1-300x186.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194896\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Member for Wide Bay Llew O&#8217;Brien with Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack in Murgon on Wednesday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>November 9, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.<\/p>\n<p>Minister McCormack was in Queensland to attend the Wide Bay Burnett Regional Economic Development Growth Forum in Maryborough on Thursday. Member for Wide Bay Llew O&#8217;Brien took the opportunity to invite him down to speak in Murgon.<\/p>\n<p>The two politicians conducted a street walk along Lamb Street, speaking to small business owners at several businesses before retiring to the Royal Hotel for afternoon tea.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Brien said the street walk was an opportunity to listen to local businesses and &#8220;collect issues&#8221;, as well as explain new corporate tax cuts and changes introduced in the last Budget.<\/p>\n<p>The turnover threshold to be defined as a small business &#8211; and be able to access benefits available only to small businesses &#8211; has been raised from $2 million to $10 million.<\/p>\n<p>At the Royal Hotel, Mr McCormack and Mr O&#8217;Brien were joined by more local businesspeople as well as Kristy Frahm, the CEO of the Burnett Inland Economic Development Organisation (BIEDO); and the Economic Development Officers for the Cherbourg and South Burnett councils.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms Frahm had a prepared list of questions for Mr McCormack which sparked discussion around the table about apprenticeships, Sunday penalty rates and incentives to keep employees rather than hiring staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr McCormack said the tax rate for business was currently at 27.5 per cent although the long-term plan was to get it down to 25 per cent.\u00a0 However, he said that at 27.5 per cent, it was currently the lowest it had been since 1940.<\/p>\n<p>He said there were incentives available for start-up businesses and for some other special cases.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are incentives for female entrepreneurs, Indigenous entrepreneurs. Sometime the men feel they are left behind, but that&#8217;s the way of the world,&#8221; he joked.<\/p>\n<p>He bemoaned the fact that Australia had lost a generation of apprentices.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every parent wanted their children to go to university and get a degree, have that piece of paper, a degree in Arts or something they will never use rather than go to TAFE,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr McCormack was asked about the possibility of low-interest loans to small business.<\/p>\n<p>He reminded people that the Federal Government was not a bank: &#8220;We&#8217;re a business too and we rely on people&#8217;s taxes to run our business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr McCormack suggested small businesspeople visit the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.asbfeo.gov.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a><\/strong> for assistance as well as the Federal Government&#8217;s business.gov.au <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business.gov.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194895\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194895\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-194895\" title=\"20171108 Minister's Visit\" src=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister3.jpg 620w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister3-300x186.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194895\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The small group enjoyed afternoon tea as BIEDO CEO Kristy Frahm presented Minister McCormack with some &#8220;questions without notice&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194897\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194897\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-194897\" title=\"20171108 Minister's Visit\" src=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister2-300x184.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194897\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">At the Royal Hotel in Murgon &#8230; Seated, from left, Gary Long (Murgon Real Estate), Small Business Minister Michael McCormack, South Burnett Senior Economic Development Officer Craig Tunley, and KCCI president Rob Fitz-Herbert (TAFE Qld); at back, Neville Holden (BGA AgriServices, Goomeri), BIEDO CEO Kristy Frahm, Lance Rea (Murgon Tyre &amp; Auto), Member for Wide Bay Llew O&#8217;Brien, Mark Smith (Mark Smith&#8217;s Menswear) and Cherbourg Economic Development Officer Sean Nicholson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":194896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3],"tags":[28],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-08T15:35:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-11T02:43:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/\",\"name\":\"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-08T15:35:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-11T02:43:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au","description":"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2017-11-08T15:35:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-11T02:43:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/20171108minister1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/","name":"MPs Stop To Listen In Murgon - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-11-08T15:35:09+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-11T02:43:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"Murgon businesspeople had the opportunity to quiz Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack on Wednesday about issues such as tax, employment incentives and apprenticeships.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/11\/09\/mps-stop-to-listen-in-murgon\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194894"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271313,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194894\/revisions\/271313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}