Small business owners are in the dark over industrial relations reforms, a survey by small business portal OzBizRadio has found – despite the extravagant advertising campaign.

OzBizRadio staff conducted a telephone survey of 360 small business
owners in all Australian capital cities last week to determine their
level of knowledge about the new reforms and to gauge their opinion of
the reforms. The survey overwhelmingly suggested that most small
business operators are not familiar with the reforms or what effect
they would have on their business.

Only 2.2% of respondents had visited the Work Choices website, while
just 3.3% of respondents knew when the Industrial Relations (Work
Choices) legislation would come into effect. Some 33.3% of respondents
said they were reasonably familiar with the new Work Choices
legislation, while 64.5% were not.

Less than a quarter – 21.2% – of respondents had read the
Government’s full-page newspaper ads explaining the reforms, while
78.8% said they had not read the ads.

When asked whether they thought the new reforms would have an impact on
creating jobs across Australia, 36.7% said yes, 45.6% said there would
not be an impact and 17.7% were unsure.

And when they were asked if the changes would have an impact on
employment prospects in their business, 17.8% said there would be an
impact, 60% said there would not be an impact and 22.2% were unsure.