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A sweet deal for small business

Maxine McKew

by Maxine McKew

28 Jan 05:25am

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Filed under: Economy, Election 2010, Small Business, Stimulus Package

47 comments

My first offering to The Punch for 2010 – and it’s a puff piece!  Gena Karpf makes great, sweet puffy marshmallows. Fruity flavoured marshmallows, chocolate flavoured marshmallows, pretty much any sort of marshmallow you could imagine really.

Describe this image

Anyone who sees the swooning effect that Meryl Streep’s goodies have on Steve Martin in this summer’s hit movie It’s Complicated will get my drift.

Gena’s shop SWEETNESS: The Patisserie is two doors down from my new Electorate Office in Epping.

Despite starting her business last year when we all thought the global recession was going to leave a sour taste in our mouth, it’s been all sweetness and light for Gena.

Her marshmallows, her florentines, and her shortbread keep disappearing out the door as quickly as she can make them.

Gena has doubled her workforce since she opened her doors last February and is now looking to recruit another pastry chef.
What’s been the secret to her success?

Mostly it’s been Gena’s hard work and business acumen in developing a highly marketable product and finding a particular clientele to the point that she is now even thinking of exporting.

But I’d also like to take some of the credit.

It’s true my staff and I have been among Gena’s best customers from Day One.

But there’s also the marshmallow soft landing the Rudd Government has managed to give the Australian economy with our successful stimulus measures.

And a significant part of our stimulus was the sweet tax break we worked out for Australian businesses.

The Small Business and General Business Tax Break allowed businesses an extra tax deduction for plant and equipment purchased before December 31 that they needed to keep their business running.

Gena has used the tax break to great effect to invest in a new oven, fridges, freezer, a mixer and benches.

I suspect Gena’s story and thousands of others like it are the reason our employment figures are holding up the way they have over the last few months.

In NSW jobs advertisements are up by 56%.

This month we learnt that the national unemployment figure is 5.5%, with the NSW figure slightly higher at 5.9%

An astonishing result considering that across the pond, U.S. unemployment is a shocking 10%.

As I see it, the Australian economic achievement is a collective effort.

Employers kept their nerve.

They did so because they saw the right kind of targeted stimulus by the Rudd Labor Government, essential bank guarantees, and an appropriate institutional response from the RBA which all had the effect of sending a message that was too big to ignore.

We kept the confidence in the economy. At the start of 2010, it means that life is sweet for Gena, her employees and her customers! 

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47 comments

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    • Wayne Hutchins says:

      05:38am | 28/01/10

      Maybe you should tell that to the 21,507 Business’s that went bust between Jan and Sep 09 (last quarter figures not available yet, they can’t count that high)
      You are right in saying it’s a puff piece.

      Reply

    • Evan Findlay says:

      07:47pm | 29/01/10

      Maybe it has more to do with their business acumen, or lack there of!

    • stephen says:

      06:19am | 28/01/10

      Yes, nice story, and I expect a lot of happy small business men and women
      are pleased so far with the general business environment.
      Labor’s looking good, and we hope for a happy ending.

      Reply

    • steve parker says:

      06:49am | 28/01/10

      Sure - tell that to many of the small business employees in the southern suburbs of Adelaide struggling to keep their family and mortgage afloat on three quarter hours and pay ....... and you have the nerve to write this sort of rubbish. Sure the employment figures are steady - but what you miss in the dodgy distorted figures put out by your and previous Government is the real state of play and the reality of what is taking place in the workplace and homes. Life is sweet - maybe in your leafy Sydney suburb - you have to be joking - you astonish me.

      Reply

    • Sam of Sydney says:

      07:11am | 28/01/10

      Yeah it is a puff piece,
      Let me take your Marshmellow metaphor a bit further (but in the form of a simile), The Rudd Marshmellow is a sweet vote winner, but does not have any nutritional value whatsoever. The stimulus package has put the nation in more debt than ever before, and will force a slower recovery than other nations, so that in 5 years time Australian will once again be the Basket Case of Asia, do you want to take Credit for that as well - Australia’s economic decline in Real Terms, especially with no ETS to pay off the Tax.

      Reply

    • Eric says:

      08:17am | 28/01/10

      Let’s give credit where it’s due: China’s soaring demand for our raw materials drives the Australian economy.

      Reply

    • Karen says:

      08:46am | 28/01/10

      We kept the confidence in the economy. At the start of 2010, it means that life is sweet for Gena, her employees and her customers!
      Until we have to pay all this stimulus back with higher interest rates, you forget to mention. Has Kevin decidied how we’re going to get back out of debt yet? It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to do it with his ETS/TAX anymore.

      Reply

    • Peter says:

      08:54am | 28/01/10

      Yeah, just wait until Gena tries to get rid of some useless Gen-Y misfit she mistakenly hired, and then has the pleasure of having to deal with some fat union guy in eureka flag t-shirt and braces in her store telling her to pay out ‘go away’ money to the misfit or they’ll take her to the IRC for unfair dismissal.

      Puffy, indeed - and all thanks to Labor.

      Reply

    • bella starkey says:

      09:08am | 28/01/10

      Peter, that was an ad. It wasn’t real life.

    • pete says:

      08:55am | 28/01/10

      As far as I can tell, you had little to do with it, apart from buying goods. her popularity is a result of forward planning, market research and actually delivering what she had planned to in the first place.

      Sort of the opposite of what the ALP is currently doing, would’nt you say?  The only “puff” in this piece, is the hot air from a politician, or has your government run out of…...“puff”

      yes I’m a disenchanted voter, watching someone who was voted in to office by my fellow voters write a “puff” piece instead of doing her job and being concerned with the national interest.

      Reply

    • Lucie says:

      09:01am | 28/01/10

      There is one thing about you guys in the Labor Government, your all very good at patting yourselves on the back. That is all your article is about. Australia was helped sail through the GFC, because you inherited one of the best economy’s in the world just over 2 years ago. Rudd did nothing but what any other country in the world did regarding stimulus. Except he went overboard playing santa, now has no idiea how to pay it back, except by trying to introduce your ETS. Stop congratulating yourselves Maxine, Australians are getting tired of hearing it.  Action speaks better than words, tell your boss that will you.

      Reply

    • Sherlock says:

      09:18am | 28/01/10

      And now Gena’s even saving money on wages

      http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/money/wage-cuts-for-low-paid/story-e6frezc0-1225824114766

      “THOUSANDS of low-paid NSW workers face losing wages and employee conditions as part of a sweeping overhaul of workplace awards An investigation by The Daily Telegraph reveals thousands of employees - many on minimum wages - have returned to work after the Christmas break to find their pay packets docked.”

      It’s all good news for Gena and her fellow employers

      Reply

    • Gena Karpf says:

      07:35pm | 28/01/10

      To ensure the record is straight, Sherlock….

      From our opening in March 2009 I have kept a promise that every employee would be paid well above award.  I do so because I want them to be very clear that I appreciate their contribution.  My employees are important to the life of my business.  It’s unthinkable that I would leverage awards overhaul to diminish employee wages.

    • Wayne Hutchins says:

      09:29pm | 28/01/10

      But Gena, I need to ask you, did you donate to the labor party for all this free advertising or is she and her staff such pigs for marshmallow that you are willing to be associated with this article as the success story of the labor party?  I am not saying you are not a very generous employer, or a brilliant business women. Could be, I don’t know! But sometimes a business can suffer because of whom pushes their barrow. All she and her staff have done is pig out on your product and attempt to use you to prop up their dodgy stimulus package as successful but it did nothing for the other 30 odd thousand business’s that bit the dust. You would have been a fool not to take advantage of it. But it didn’t save the other’s. Whats in this for you? Or is it just a gal thing? Please don’t tell me your just friends.

    • Evan Findlay says:

      07:59pm | 29/01/10

      I wouldn’t worry about them Gena. You will never get these fools to understand. Most of the bloggers here are the right wing fanatics that will never give credit where credit is due. They complain about the stimulus package that kept many an Australian in work but I guarantee when Howard was throwing away cash as election sweetners it was brilliant policy. They talk about the 20 billion left to Rudd, less 60 billion for the future fund and I ask the question, What happened to the other 266 Billion dollars collected in tax revenue under Howard and Costello? They are just uneducated fools who still can’t get over the election loss.

    • Charles says:

      09:41am | 28/01/10

      MM gives herself the usual pat on the back that she has come to expect from herself.  It must be difficult to aspire to even higher levels of self-praise every day that you get up.

      In respect of the tax break for working assets that was in effect last year, it wasn’t a bad idea, although a lot of people took advantage of it that really only did it because it was available, and not out of any necessity. 

      All things have a cost though, and this will be reflected in lower revenue by the Commonwealth over the next 4-5 years as the effects of this high speed depreciation of assets work their way through the economy.

      This will result in either the government reducing spending on essential services such as education, health and infrastructure, or even more government debt resulting in higher inflation.

      So, if indeed you are taking responsibility for this MM, then thanks for nothing.

      Reply

    • Ben says:

      10:08am | 28/01/10

      Maxine a very clever piece.
      I imagine this sort of fluffy dross goes down a treat with those latte sipping Bennelong types - no doubt they we nodding their heads asa they enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while the union and employer stereotypes got trotted out yet again by as the apparatchiks shape up for an election year.

      Reply

    • wheres the meat? says:

      10:39am | 28/01/10

      politicians are just like marshmallows arent they..  the shape and form is there, but no substance.

      instead of stuffing sweets into your cake hole, how about an enquiry into the legality of the iraq war - and then some accountability!

      disgusting people you are.  cancer is spreading all through iraq because of the depleted uranium we dropped on them, their water will remain poisoned for thousands of years, and youre sitting around writing fluff pieces to pat yourself on the back, for doing not much at all.

      the war was illegal…  are we alaw abiding nation or not?

      Reply

    • 6clegs says:

      12:17pm | 28/01/10

      I seem to remember watching a doco on SBS *well before* the war about how Saddamn [sic] was poisoning the Idris river to get rid of the “river/boat’’ tribe of peoples that lived on and fished it ???
      I was/am against the Iraq invasion and subsequent war and agree that it was/is illegal. MM was still a journo then, no? An enquiry yes, but ‘blaming’ MM for the war is misplaced IMO.

      One of the few things I miss not living in Sydeney anymore are the many *proper* Patisserie’s…  But no ‘mobile car parks’, the sweet fresh air/water, and affordable [but great] standard of living more than make up for a sweet treat with morning coffee - but will check out “Gena’s shop’’ next time am up there. (BTW, great ad! ya missed yer calling all those years with aunty)...
      now back to your regular scheduled program…

    • wheres the meat? says:

      01:22pm | 28/01/10

      yes, saddam was a tyrant, and im not blaming MM for the war, im just mad because she, and the rest, cant seem to find better ways to spend their time but to write fluff pieces..  id rather my politicians did something useful, and important, like an enquiry into the iraq war - but thats just for starters!

      but is it too much to ask why there is no action re an iraq enquiry? there one in the UK…. is it too much to ask why hundreds of thousand of people were killed in my name, against my wishes from the start - and then not get any answers?  if you cant do anything, who should i direct my outrage towards? if you cant do anything.. why are you there? will I get an answer? probably not… too busy stuffing pastries into her face, its criminal…

    • pete says:

      11:31am | 28/01/10

      that would be an interesting sight, John Howard arrested by the UN and sent to the Hague to stand trial

      Reply

    • Greg says:

      05:49pm | 28/01/10

      What a stupid thing to say. Maybe Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt could follow Howard to the Hague because they occupied a foreign country and deposed a dictator as well.

      People like you will never cease to amaze me. Was Saddam your pinup boy was he? Well there are plenty more like him for you to get right behind. I mean there is that imbecile Chavez in Venezuela or Ahmadinejad in Iran. Take your pick.

      When we start talking about the legalities of war people like you with your shrill protestations seem to neglect the massive human rights abuses in the case of Saddam and his henchmen.

      Do you remember Slobadan Milosevic of Serbia. That action was carried out with a UN mandate. Obviously before Iraq the UN lost it’s spine completely and settled back into it’s current levels of blissful ignorance.

    • wheres the meat? says:

      10:32pm | 28/01/10

      youre a contemptible tw*t greg. or perhaps you were dropped on your head as a baby?

      nowhere did pete say he supports saddam, or any one else, youre making things up. stop youre senseless ravings,  look at the suffering in afghanistan and iraq now and tell me, that after killing hundreds of thousands of innocents, and displacing millions, that they are better off..go back to sleep fool

    • Greg says:

      06:50pm | 29/01/10

      You think I’m the Twit do you? I’m not the one saying that Howard, a democratically elected PM in a free nation should front the Hague. Where’s the meat, my post wasn’t insulting I was merely pointing out why the previous post wasn’t very intelligent. You, on the other hand by resorting to name calling have shown yourself to be the absolute weakest link.

      When dictators are involved there is pain and suffering, and there is more pain and suffering when other countries have to get rid of them. You and Pete clearly neglect to mention what these countries went through under Taliban and Baath Party rule and both countries had proven either by invasion of a neighbor or a horrendous terrorist attack that they were threats to world security.

      Now instead of resorting to name calling you could tell me where I am making things up? Don’t they teach you history on your Socialist Alliance websites?

    • Darren says:

      11:46am | 28/01/10

      Oh Maxine, what would you like a “Meda"l or a chest to pin it on? Your articles are always the same, first half is a cute little story, second half is congratulating yourself and your Government.

      Reply

    • Jeff says:

      11:55am | 28/01/10

      I bet the lattes are great at Gina’s to

      Reply

    • Jack Thomas says:

      11:57am | 28/01/10

      I am perplexed.

      An ABC hack is set up into a seat by her Labor heavyweight hubbie, then sits around while her portfolio (Child Care) goes up in flames, lets the Liquidators sort it out, does nothing whatsoever on child care, including following up on more of Rudd’s hollow broken promises, then writes a bit of fluff about life being a box of chocolates.

      The economy scraped through by a mix of luck, inheriting a $22 billion war chest and a well regulated banking system and a resource-based economy chugging through a continued resource boom. 

      Apparently it’s all due to the Brownies. Not so much out of touch, as out of her little mind.

      Reply

    • Evan Findlay says:

      08:01pm | 29/01/10

      Yes, but look at the good points. She finished off Howard!

    • Gordy of Orange says:

      12:56pm | 28/01/10

      Maxine,
      You didn’t need to write anything after the 1st sentence - it said it all. Just a labor party campaign advertisment - to think that you actually had the gall to call yourself a journalist in a previous life.

      As others have said - you had absolutely nothing to do with this other than stuffing your face with marshmallows (unless you are moonlighting in the Treasurers office).

      I wish Gena well now that you have politicized her business - plenty of swinging voters in Benelong that may not be so chuffed with you and Kevvie.

      How about actually doing something for your community for a change - then again, you will probably be a one termer so no real need.

      Reply

    • Bruce says:

      01:43pm | 28/01/10

      Regarding the “Small Busines and “general business tax breaks before December 31”. The benefit is neutral or marginal. Make sure you check with your accountant, its not as good as you think, and there maybe better business structures for your business.

      Reply

    • Brad Coward says:

      01:54pm | 28/01/10

      You’ll have plenty of time to patronise this store in person after the election, Ms McKew.  The fact that you spend so little time in your electorate has cheesed off many of those who looked to you as the “great white hope”....no racial overtones intended.  Enjoy what’s left of your term.  I have little doubt that the next time I read something penned by Maxine McKew it will appear in The Age. 

      Like the confectionery that you gush over, this article was a big, gooey mess filled with dead calories.

      Reply

    • Saskia says:

      02:15pm | 28/01/10

      Maxine your whole career to date has been a puff piece.  I honestly don’t know where to start with an article like that.  The lack of empathy shown to small business battlers all over Australia was simply breathtaking.  You certainly are the master of the inane grin no matter the circumstance and have obviously taught Rudd this too.  Please forget the photo -ops, the celeb wanna be, popularity contest that you and your party seem to be engaged in and get real.  You have not made one improvement to Australian’s lot in your political career to date.  I defy you or any supporters to name and explain ONE SINGLE THING that YOU have done to the betterment of your electorate and/or the Australian people as a whole.

      Reply

    • Brad Coward says:

      03:36pm | 28/01/10

      She eats confectionery produced in her electorate !  MM is the champion of the small business woman, you know !

    • Henry Ackroyd says:

      03:24pm | 28/01/10

      Maxine… care to explain how a tax break on capital infrastructure will help a very new small business in times of a contracting economy?  Cash flow is her biggest problem!  An increase in investment in capital infrastructure means net outflows!  This is a trap many businesses fall into.  CAPEX should be done in good times not in times of tight cashflow.  Tax cuts or breaks with no-strings were what was needed but once again the ALP has shown it has not a clue where finance is concerned.  I wonder how many small businesses feel into the ‘cheap capex’ trap and have now actually sped up their demise…  As for taking credit for the good health of the Aussie economy - you are hilarious!  It was 100% Peter Costello.  Have some integrity.

      Reply

    • Brad Coward says:

      03:33pm | 28/01/10

      Self praise is no reccomendation, Ms McKew !

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      05:33pm | 28/01/10

      2 MM’s Brad. (see above )

    • Frank Ly says:

      03:40pm | 28/01/10

      Gawd what a load of Pommy Whingers.
      Do any of you bigotted people see any good in any politicians?
      If you want to do some real good for Australia why don’t you all go home.

      Reply

    • formersnag says:

      04:19pm | 28/01/10

      NO we don’t, at least not if we are sane. There would be less than 6 honest politicians in Australia & MM is not one of them.

      Put the sitting member last in all electorates & BTW, i am neither a pom or bigoted, i hate all politicians & bureaucrats equally, well that’s not quite true the green/labour coalition are more hypocritical than the conservatives.

    • Daz says:

      03:46pm | 28/01/10

      The fiscal stimulus was a giant sugar hit. Marshmallows are the perfect metaphor. The trouble with a sugar hit is that a low inevitably follows. Now as inflation starts to bite and rates rise and all the debt servicing begins, the low will be borne for years and years and years.

      Labor never have quite figured out that if you are going to buy marshmallows on borrowed money, someone has to pay it back.

      Reply

    • BULMKT says:

      03:56pm | 28/01/10

      You want to help small business?

      Then GET RID OF FBT!

      Any Business with less than $2m turnover should be exempt.

      Reply

    • Kelly says:

      04:41pm | 28/01/10

      Hey Maxine, is Kevin going to explain tonight on the 7.30 report his plans for a big Australia of 35 mill or more, and also cut emmisions at the same time? Or will it be just more sweeping statements with no commitment or idea on how he will do this?

      Reply

    • Kelvin James says:

      09:10am | 29/01/10

      He has no opinion on that. A couple of months ago he said he supported the idea of a “big Australia” of 35 million. Last night when confronted with this he said he now no longer has an opinion on that, and said Australias population boom was because of high fertility rates and a history of immigration and largely out of the Governments hands. The population of 35 million is largely due to Immigration. Well isn’t immigration something that is handled by the Government? He takes ownership of nothing. There have been reports Australia will not be able to reduce emmisions as the Government have been saying with such a population growth. (mainly due to immigration). And people go out there and try to attack Abbott about an interview in a womens magazine about his kids as the most important thing happening in federal politics? And Maxine you are right your article is a “puff piece” Just like your boss was last night on 7.30 Report. I think your boss is losing the plot.

    • Brian says:

      05:12pm | 28/01/10

      Maxine McWho? Gone next election.

      Reply

    • Phil says:

      05:26pm | 28/01/10

      Maxine

      I am no glad you enjoy some cakes and chocolates. The sugar high is just what Kevin provided just over a year ago. Trouble is that with the highs come the lows and many voters sugar levels are now at hypo levels.

      There was no low GI impact in your stimulus just RED BULL.

      Your lot is now after inviting everyone to a party about to split the bill come the end of it and ask all Australians to cough up for your utter wastage of the cash.

      You are a joke. If it was not for your husband you would not have even got preselection.

      How you can live with yourself after the fraud the labor party spun the Australian People is mindblowing.

      Reply

    • Dave says:

      05:36pm | 28/01/10

      Nice spin Maxy

      Reply

    • Carinthia says:

      08:04pm | 28/01/10

      There are some great small business stories out there. I work with a lot of them and have seen successes in startups despite the economy. Nice story Maxine but for heaven’s sake leave out the Labor party advert. Gena is obviously a savvy businesswoman who knows her market and her business. Yes she has taken advantage of the tax breaks, but we don’t need Kev’s handouts rammed down our throats every time you open your mouth or put fingers to keyboards.

      Reply

    • Evan Findlay says:

      07:49pm | 29/01/10

      Similiar to the good fortunes of the Howard Government.

      Reply
 
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