The lack of respect for small businesses
If the newly established colony of New South Wales was to be anything more than a half-stranded British outpost, dependent on an incredibly tenuous supply chain to the other side of the world, people were going to have to do more than idly hoe the miserable crops on Government Farm and forage for berries in the bush.
Enter James Ruse, the father of Australian agriculture, who showed that it was possible for an ordinary settler to support themself by farming on the land Down Under. Ruse, a convicted burglar from Cornwall, seemed intent on starting a new life in the colony after having served his time. NSW Governor Arthur Phillip made a deal with Ruse — Phillip would give Ruse a conditional land grant, which would be made permanent, with a 30 acre bonus, if he could prove it possible to make a proper living out of it.
On one-and-a-half acres of cleared land on the Parramatta River, he began to experiment. Drawing on his own experience farming in Cornwall, he burnt the fallen timber off the ground, then dug in and hoed over the ashes to fertilise the ground. With some satisfaction he pointed out that the hoeing was unlike that carried out on Government Farm, which was ‘just scratched over’, but properly dug and turned. This, along with digging in grass and weeds and ‘clod-moulding’, Ruse thought was ‘almost equal to ploughing’, something the colony lacked.
Together with his wife, they worked at it through the tail end of a severe El Nino drought until finally, in February 1791, they were rewarded with a bumper crop of maize, or Indian corn. Ruse told Phillip he and his new family could now be taken off rations, a good six months ahead of what Phillip had expected. A surprised and elated Phillip granted Ruse 30 acres, which he decided to name ‘Experiment Farm’, and used his example to persuade the naysayers that ordinary smallholders could indeed look to make a future in this new country if, like Ruse, they were willing to use some enterprise and initiative.
Ruse saw an opportunity to transform his life, to prove what was possible and he took the challenge on with both hands. His industriousness paid off as he initiated a key theme in the convict experience: the chance to rise above your past mistakes, and perhaps lowly station in live, and begin again. James Ruse was the first of what would become an almost countless series of stories about quiet (achieving) Australians, and set NSW on the course to become a truly viable and self-sufficient colony.
Fast forward to 1960, 26% of the share of the Australian national income was received by small family-run businesses and the self-employed. In 2019, that fell to 9%. Where did the rest of the money go? Big business, the financial services industry and landlords. Whatever happened to the entrepreneurial spirit of James Ruse?
The age of the middle class is over, and the age of the technocratic elite is emerging. This new power structure seems to amount, in many ways, to a return to pre-modern society, characterised not only by a ruling clerisy but by the attendant phenomena of patronage rather than social mobility, extended rather than nuclear families, low demand for labour, and debate about theology more than politics. Contemporary Australian culture no longer truly respects Australians who want to make something of themselves, and those under their employ.
Politics, economics, the operation of the law, media manipulation, education indoctrination, are all downstream from culture. COVID-19 highlighted this, especially the Victorian response to COVID-19 — in the June 2020 quarter alone, private sector wages in Victoria declined by $1.9 billion whilst public sector wages increased by $88 million. At the same time, small to mid-sized business sector employment shrunk whilst taxpayer-funded public sector employment grew. The next time someone criticises those who are critical of the government-enforced lockdowns, ask them, who butters their bread?
I’m guessing that the technocratic elite, supported by ABC staff who voted against deferring a pay rise for themselves this year, don’t believe in the dignity of employment for all. I’m also guessing that they believe that a small business is just about balance sheets and P&Ls. No, the economy is about people’s lives, their life savings, paying the mortgage and raising their children. Government actions that break small businesspeople and their employees is criminal. But hey, welcome to the new Australia culture, where low taxes, minimal red tape, and treating adults like adults, isn’t the solution to our problems. With our politicians generally at the mercy of the out-of-touch bureaucrats who work for them, this won’t be changing dramatically soon.