DAVID LEYONHJELM 19th September 2014 Australian Financial Review Pharmacy owners set to continue enjoying regulations to protect them and subsidies to enrich them. It is night, a fever takes hold and a mother starts to worry. A bathroom cupboard is raided, but it is full of medicine past its use-by date. A child is bundled into a car. A waiting room is endured. Then a GP provides a prescription. With child in arms the mother returns to the car, then scratches her head. Where is a chemist that would be open at this time of night? The mother scrounges for her mobile phone, but it is out of charge. Should she drive around in the hope of finding a chemist that’s open, or trek back home to look one up? Driving past the lit-up supermarket, the mother wonders, “Why is it so hard to find a chemist?” Meanwhile, the enthusiasm…

Damon Kitney SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 THE AUSTRALIAN THE Abbott government is poised to announce tough new performance benchmarks for the nation’s regulators and bureaucrats, streamlining how they must deal with small business in a bid to slash red tape and compliance costs. The government’s response to a Productivity Commission report on regulator engagement with small business will detail new “engagement principles’’ that will apply to commonwealth agencies in their dealings with the sector. The response is expected to form part of the government’s innovation and competitiveness agenda that will be released within weeks. The Coalition has promised to cut more than $1 billion in red tape annually, including introducing an annual repeal day spearheaded by Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary for deregulation, Josh Frydenberg. On the first such occasion, tens of thousands of redundant laws were repealed. It has also promised a new service initiative to streamline the way businesses access…

Andrew Sadauskas 19 September 2014 A Melbourne based startup, one of the 12 companies chosen for the Tin Alley Beta Summer program, is preparing for a “David and Goliath” battle using technology to help independent food retailers compete against Coles and Woolworths. YourGrocer founder Morgan Ranieri told Private Media the idea came about when he tried to visit local retailers after becoming “fed up with shopping at the big supermarkets”. “When I wanted to go to the local greengrocer and butcher, they were always closed because I work full-time. There was a big disconnect – these shops were closed when I needed them – and also a big opportunity there to get these businesses online,” he says. “So we’re building a business that does personal home deliveries from independent local shops, such as your local butcher, greengrocer, bakers, delis or independent supermarket. For the shops, we allow them to do…