Media Release by The Hon Kate Ellis MP

Support for women in small to medium businesses

Joint Media Release with:

  • Senator Nick Sherry, Minister for Small Business

The Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis and the Minister for Small Business, Nick Sherry today announced $20,000 towards a project promoting greater participation of women in Australian trade and business.

Ms Ellis said with more than 700,000 women business operators in Australia we know that businesswomen make a powerful contribution to the Australian economy.

“The Australian Women’s Chamber of Commerce was established in 2010 to advocate on behalf of women who own or operate small to medium sized firms in Australia,” Ms Ellis said.

“I am delighted that the Australian Women’s Chamber of Commerce is planning to undertake research on Australian women in business.

“We need to know more about what attracts women to business and how we can support them to thrive.”

The Australian Women’s Chamber of Commerce will manage the National Businesswomen Research Project to help promote women’s participation in more small to medium enterprises.

Ms Ellis said a key component of the project will be the delivery of a survey that will provide a wealth of information on Australian women operating small to medium sized enterprises.

“The project will build on achievements that the Australian Government has made in ensuring better economic outcomes for women, individual businesses and the economy more generally,” Ms Ellis said.

Senator Sherry said there appears to be a welcome trend of more women running a business.

“Some surveys have suggested the growth in the number of female business operators is far higher than that of men,” Senator Sherry said.

“More detailed information will help in understanding and responding to the needs of women in small business.

“Small business is the engine room of our economy, with two million enterprises employing five million Australians.

“The Government recognises the importance of this dynamic sector to the economy and has a wide range of advisory and support services in place to assist small businesses.”

Information on these services is available at www.business.gov.au