Low confidence in transport and storage sector

The transport and storage sector is struggling to maintain any consistent levels of business confidence according to the quarterly Sensis Business Index, which takes the pulse of Australian small to medium businesses.
The latest results show that confidence dropped by 11 points in the most recently studied quarter, taking the net balance to +24, 20 points below the national result.
This is the only industry sector displaying a negative balance for profitability expectations.
The survey found that support for the Federal Government among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has fallen into negative territory and to the lowest level since Malcolm Turnbull took over as Prime Minister.
The net balance fell four points this quarter (from +2 to -2). The score is calculated by comparing the number of SMEs that feel supported by the Federal Government’s policies (14 per cent) to the number that do not feel supported (16 per cent).
Sensis CEO John Allan commented, “After Malcolm Turnbull took over as Prime Minister in 2015 we saw confidence in the Government rise, with businesses telling us they were optimistic about the change.
“Since then the Government’s approval rating has fallen nine points and is 20 points lower than the highest score we saw under Tony Abbott, following the pro-business Federal budget of 2015. To find a lower score we need to go back to the March 2015 survey, which was taken after Tony Abbott had survived a leadership spill.
“While perceptions of the economy remain strong, less than one in seven businesses have faith in the Government’s policies, with the biggest concerns being excessive bureaucracy and red tape, as well as there being too much of a focus on the interests of big business,” he said.