Tuesday 6 August 2013. Matthew Fraser the Nationals Candidate for Richmond, addressed a crowd of attentive people who derive their income from small business in the federal electorate of Richmond this evening.

As darkness descended on Northern NSW, Matthew Fraser addressed a crowd of local voters in the park at Tweed Heads. His speech touched on the impact that Labor has had on business confidence and profits in Tweed Shire.

Other speakers told the crowd that Labor, under the leadership of Rudd then Gillard and now Rudd, had imposed policies that harmed small business. A pro business lobby group, "Small Business Too Big To Ignore" organised the event to provide a venue for candidates to put their polices forward..

The crowd heard speakers discuss the importance of small business to Australia and to the people who work in local commerce.

Matthew Fraser spoke in support of small business operators and their employees in the seat of Richmond. He said that he wanted to be elected to go to Canberra to advocate for change in small business policy. He said that he will provide support for business people if he is in Parliament. He said people in Richmond will need help as they overcome years of neglect from disadvantage under the union controlled Labor Party.

Apologies for the sound early in this video of Matthew Fraser addressing business people in Tweed Heads



About Matthew Fraser Nationals coalition  Candidate for Richmond

At 33 Matthew is an energetic new face for the party in one of our key campaigns for the next federal election.

Born in Penrith, Matthew lived on Thursday Island in his earlier years before his family moved to Caboolture. His father worked for Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) which became Telstra. His mother was a school teacher and he has two younger sisters.

At 18 Matthew moved to Brisbane and by the age of 21 he bought his first property. Interested by the real estate industry, he found employment with Wizard Home Loans and after four years he purchased a Wizard Home Loan franchise in the suburb of Albany Creek in Brisbane.

In 2008 he sold his home loan business, having put away enough to invest in a Hungry Jack’s franchise in South Tweed with his fiancée Paula. Matthew and Paula were childhood sweethearts and, somewhat ironically, they met as teenagers while working for McDonald’s.

Paula grew up in Caboolture and she and Matthew live in Bilambil Heights.

The couple have just purchased a second Hungry Jack’s outlet in Tweed Heads and Paula will be managing the businesses as Matthew moves into campaign mode.

Matthew’s spare time is spent on his second passion - collecting and racing BMX bicycles. He first became involved in the sport as a teenager and has collected over 20 bikes and the earliest model he owns is a 1986 Zeronine BMX.

As a small business-man, about to settle down and start a family in NSW, Matthew is keenly aware of the devastating effect Labor’s Carbon Tax will have on business and families across the country. In the months leading up to the next federal election, he will be out in the Richmond community reminding voters that a vote for Labor is a vote for the Carbon Tax.

• Matthew Fraser The Nationals candidate for the Richmond electorate
• Web: http://matthewfraser.com.au/
  
• Facebook: Matthew Fraser
  
• Twitter: Fraser4Richmond
  
• Email: matthew.fraser@nswnationals.org.au
  
• Phone: 07 5523 0244
• Address: 67 Minjungbal Drive, Tweed Heads South, NSW, 2486
• Post: PO Box 6524, Tweed Heads South, NSW, 2486

Why is small business making a big noise right now?

Because the majority of businesses in Australia are small business. There are over 2 million of them here, employing over 7 million Australians, and for too many years, they’ve been overtaxed, overregulated and overlooked by government.

With the Federal election on the horizon, now is the time for highly visible, national campaign that enables small business to stand up and make a big noise. By uniting the many small voices of small business all round the country, our aim is to show politicians that, together, small business is too big to ignore.

The facts and figures about small business in Australia speak for themselves. This website simply brings them together in one place, alongside the deeply personal accounts from real small business operators who have agreed to share their stories here.

These are stories that deserve a bigger voice, and we welcome wider publication of any of the material on this website. Please feel free to download any of the information relating to The Small Business. Too Big To Ignore campaign below.

Key facts and figures

There are over 2 million small businesses* in Australia
They employ more than 7 million Australians
That’s over 60% of our workforce

*What is a small business? There are several technical definitions, but speaking to small businesspeople the term means a lot more to them than that. We have found that small and medium businesses consider themselves to be part of small business.  So for our campaign we have taken small business to include all businesses with less than 200 employees.

Source: Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Key Statistics: Australian Small Business, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2011.

What is the Active Voice tally all about?

The Too Big To Ignore campaign is all about giving small business owners, employees and supporters the opportunity to get involved and have their collective voice heard. The Active Voices tally is a visible representation of that voice. It records the various activities and conversations that are taking place online about the Too Big To Ignore campaign. It not only counts each person who clicks to add their support on the Too Big To Ignore website, it registers a range of other activities too, including posts and comments that are uploaded to the site, Facebook activity, Twitter activity, logins to the Too Big To Ignore website via different social media sites, and more. Essentially, the Active Voices tally is about making sure every voice counts, and that all the support for the campaign is recorded and aggregated in one central place.

Pic of Matthew Fraser and Warren Truss courtesy http://www.mydailynews.com.au