Last month, serviced office provider Servcorp asked 7,500 international businesspeople from more than 24 nations to identity which countries they believe are surviving the crisis best.

Both international and Australian businesspeople voted Australia first, followed by China and Singapore.

The top concerns of Australian businesspeople during the economic downturn were reported as being low morale in the media, followed by the Australian Government’s response to the crisis.

The full results can be obtained from ServCorp.

PAID parental leave would cost taxpayers half as much as the Government’s key economic adviser says; and would create an extra 8900 jobs by stimulating the economy.

In a paper to be released today, the Australia Institute has challenged the Productivity Commission’s costings for a publicly funded parental leave scheme and warned of the economic costs of stalling on the measure.

The Australia Institute’s analysis has put the cost to government of paying a parent a minimum wage for 18 weeks to care for their newborn at $225 million, well down on the Productivity Commission’s estimate of $450million.

What do you think?  Can our economy carry an additional deficit of $2.25 billion in these challenging times?  Is paid parental leave a necessity, or an expensive luxury, in light of the hundreds of thousands Australians struggling to make ends meet on aged, sole parent and disability pensions?  Could the money be better spent elsewhere?

You can read the full story from The Australian newspaper here: http://tinyurl.com/cv2kmu

The Autumn edition of the herVoice newsletter highlights an issue that affects all of us – the impact of the global economic climate on Australian business.

In the feature article, ABN Board member and business strategist, Susan Wareham McGrath writes about the current situation and provides plenty of practical tips and tools to assist your business in surviving the recession through the use of innovation, planning and smart management strategies.

Here’s a link to the Thriving - Not just Surviving Newsletter - for Women in Business .

Let us know your thoughts.

Have you felt the effects of the change in the economy? Have you made changes to your business plan?

We’d like to know how you’re dealing with changes in your business. Take our poll - at the right hand side of this page. 

We’ll publish the results in the coming week.  

Suzi

PS Feel free to leave a comment with more details, below!