The confidence of small businesses in Australia is yet to be fired up, according to the results of the latest survey done by the National Australia Bank.

Flagging confidence is yet to be restored among small to medium companies involved in the transport, business services and health industries have not risen and even fell during the September quarter. The survey indicated that business confidence skidded by nine points to negative 10, while actual conditions fell by three points to negative five, after remaining steady in the previous quarter.

This has been indicative that small companies are yet to make plans for the longer term as consumer confidence still wanes.

According to National Australia Bank CEO Cameron Clyne it is actually not because of the interest rates that consumers are not spending.

Mr Clyne said in a press briefing on Thursday that "a crisis of confidence" apparently is a reflection of developing external events including that of the EU debt debacle that gives forth an air of uncertainty to global markets.

The drop in confidence was felt among companies of different sizes. The NAB survey, which was also published by smartcompany.com.au said that "those businesses with turnover of between $3-5 million are now the least pessimistic, but conditions actually deteriorated among all firm sizes as well."

"There were lower results for profitability, employment and trading conditions, although conditions were slightly better for mid-tier firms compared to firm earning between $2-3 million, and those earning between $5-10 million," the report added.

Greens Party Solution

While small businesses struggle to hold up their acts together, the Greens Party has proposed tax for small business and taking down the tax exclusion on the big banks.

The Greens Party Australia is pushing for a 5 percent reduction in taxes for small businesses and yet disregarding the 1 percent company tax cut for the country's biggest four banks: ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ), National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB), Wespact Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), and the Commonwealth Banking Corp (ASX: CBA).

Greens leader Bob Brown has been quoted by reports from smartcompany.com.au pointing out the difficulties of the small business in Australia and contrasting their situation with the big four banks.

"Small businesses are not finding it so easy" but "the big four banks made over $20 billion in profits last year and are expecting even greater profits this year," Brown said.

The office of Mr Brown explained that the said 5 percent tax cut for small business firms in Australia would be revenue neutral and scrapping the 1 percent exception granted to the commercial banks would free up $4 billion into the system.