Dan Hunter

We represent nearly 50,000 businesses across New South Wales, and we're really worried.

We're seeing business confidence levels that are lower than they were in the peak of COVID.

People are really worried.

We're seeing businesses slip into insolvency more than ever, and this can't be good for anybody.

And, yeah, we always have this comment at Business New South Wales that we're about our members, but we're about people first and foremost.

We're not actually talking about

about large glass buildings in the centre of Sydney here.

We're talking about people, often people's life's work, the communities they represent, the people that work in them, jobs.

And we're really worried.

There's a lot of people struggling out there.

I think that's right because we've got some businesses that are in what we're calling a perfect storm.

You know, the top line revenue is being hit because consumer confidence is so low.

People are worried and they're not spending.

And we understand that because interest rates go up and there's a squeeze on mortgages.

And then those that own a consumer-led business, you know, retail, hospitality, that provide services to the public, they're getting squeezed on their revenue.

If they've got debt, which often a lot of small businesses will have

debt over their business.

And they'll also have it cross-securitized to their home as well, right?

So, you know, someone might be running a cafe.

They've taken out a loan for a few hundred thousand dollars to set up that cafe.