South Australian Government maintains record level support from SMBs

26 November 2018: The September Quarter 2018 Sensis Business Index, set to be released Tuesday 27 November, has revealed that small and medium business support for the South Australian State Government remains at all-time high.

The report, which measures the SMB activity, expectations and confidence over a three-month period, found that the all-time high net rating of +18 for State Government secured in the last report, was maintained again this quarter, keeping the South Australian Government as the second most popular of all states and territories.

Sensis Chief Executive Offer, John Allan said: "It's excellent to see small and medium businesses in South Australia maintaining confidence in the State Government seen in the last report, indicating continued support for the newly elected Government."

"Following the Marshall Government's push to reduce payroll tax for small and medium businesses in SA, it's not surprising this was referenced as the number one reason of those in support of the State Government."

When it came to business confidence, the results were less positive with confidence levels falling 17 points to +28, 14 points below the national average. SMBs in regional areas were far less confident than previously seen, with confidence levels falling a massive 37 points (+16) to sit 20 points below the national regional average.

The biggest concerns identified by SA SMBs were cost pressures, while those feeling confident noted healthy sales as the driving factor of positivity.

"What we often see is when lower balances are recorded by businesses in the last quarter, confidence tends to drop off, which appears to be the case within South Australia where a drop was seen in all key performance indicators except wages," said Allan.

Expectations for this quarter are more positive however, specifically sales and profitability where increases of +28 and +22 respectively were recorded.

Other interesting findings from the report:

• Support for the Federal Government among South Australian SMBs rose two points to +12, nine points above the national average
• 27% of South Australian SMBs feel the economy is growing, while 15% expressed concerns that it is slowing, for a net balance of +12 – 11 points above the national average