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On 1 July we launched our Charter of Contractual Fairness
We have heavily drawn the principles of contract fairness from the new consumer unfair contract protections laws. If it's fair for consumers, it's fair for small business people - the self-employed and independent contractors.
We are currently writing to Australian corporations asking them to commit to contract fairness in their dealings with small business people.
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The federal election was held on on 21 August 2010. ICA was active in assessing the policies of the ALP and the Coalition. Here's our comparative summary of the parties' policies just before the election.
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ICA is committed to quality research to understand self-employed people.
6 July 2010: We released a unique research report made possible by an unusual collaborative effort. The report shatters many preconceived beliefs about 'us'; small and micro-business people. We believe it has global implications.
Main points and commentary
Summary
Full report.
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20 July 2010: Here's further research from Flying Solo: Report Summary; Full report and from Kelly Services: Report. And here's a comparative chart of our own.
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Australia's decision to buy the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as the backbone of our air defence is under attack. Is this a bad procurement and contract management stuff-up? We've summarised the arguments and included some useful videos.
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Paid Parental Leave = Unnecessary red tape for small business Media Releases
17 June 2010
COSBOA: Promise of Deregulation replaced with More Regulation
COSBOA is disappointed that the government's promise to deregulate has been shown to be a farce with the involvement of small business owners as the paymasters in the paid parental leave process.
There was one last opportunity to give employers a choice on whether to be involved or not in PPL pay process and the senate has sided with the government and passed the bill.
The Executive Director of COSBOA, Peter Strong, said today "the government has spent a lot of time and energy promoting its success in deregulation of the market place but this is just for big businesses . The government shows that it does not value the time and effort put into the economy by small business by continuing with this bill ."
Mr Strong added " Government's for the last 20 years have said all the words and made all the statements about cutting compliance and red tape, and everyone of them has continued to add to the onus placed on families who run a business. For example there is now in place a new business regulation Impact Statement that has to be completed by government departments for all new policies. There is also an Office of Best Practice Regulation whose job is to make sure we get the highest quality regulations, and there are any number of Ministers involved in deregulation.
In spite of all of this the Paid Parental Leave legislation was still passed and small business has more red tape and more compliance to follow. Now Centerlink will pay the business and the business will pay the person on leave. All small business wants is for Centerlink to directly pay the person on leave. But no. Again we have more complexity. Will the government never learn the simple needs of small business? The system has once again failed the people who run a business."
COSBOA strongly supports the idea of paid parental leave but using this to create more compliance and more process for business is not productive. The government must take notice of its own advice and its own departments and advisers and not impose any more red tape.
COSBOA demands that other red tape and compliance is removed to make up for this new demand on business. For example the removal of business involvement in the distribution of supertannuation payments would be a good start and we will all then be happy to see lots of new babies crawling around small shops and cafes across the nation.
TSBC: Paymaster role for parental leave peeves small business owners
Executive Officer of the Tasmanian Small Business Council, Robert Mallett today accused the federal government of being well out of touch with the small business sector.
"Paid parental leave is a fact of life in most of the western world and small business owners are happy to see it introduced in Australia. However, the move by the Government to make the business owners responsible for making the parental payments shows little or no real understanding of the culture of small businesses" he said in Hobart today.
"The reasoning behind the decision to make the small business the paymaster and not process payments through Centrelink just doesn't hold water. This will supposedly help the bond between the employer and the employee by extending the paymaster function but in reality it will just cause resentment and confusion", he said.
"Small business owners know their staff very well and don't need this contrived mechanism to ensure that their pregnant staff are more connected with the business."
"It is the owner and their family who will visit the mother and baby in hospital; it is the owner and their family who will provide presents for them and it is the owner and their family who will watch their staff members family grow up. Employees in small businesses are not numbers they are people yet the Government can't seem to grasp this very basic concept."
Chair of the TSBC, Geoff Fader told the Innovation Forum in Canberra today that "this is exactly a case where a differential procedure for small business should be introduced but government policy remains steadfast."
"Centrelink is equipped to handle these payments and indeed has to approve them, but no, the responsible department has prepared a 24 page book on the administrative procedure required. There will be countless mistakes and unintended fraud. The politicians will bask in the headlines that show some small business operator that could not cope with the administration has been sent to jail."
Mr Mallett said that "it was particularly disappointing that the Senate in passing this bill didn't recognise the risks and unnecessary compliance in making the business pay and passed the bill without amendment".
ACCI: Business Welcomes Paid Parental Leave Scheme
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), welcomes the passing of paid parental leave legislation by the Commonwealth Parliament today.
"Australian business welcomes this important taxpayer funded social reform which will benefit women and their families. The scheme has strong bi-partisan and community support and its time has well and truly come."
"As the representative of more than 350,000 small businesses across Australia; many owned and operated by women; ACCI is disappointed that the Government chose to ignore amendments to the legislation proposed by the Opposition and supported by Senators Fielding and Xenophon which would have seen the Government administer parental leave payments through the Family Assistance Office rather than imposing this considerable burden on small business people".
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Excellent, cheap, quick dispute mediation services for small/micro business people. Click here
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Highly recommended, but care needs to be taken with PSI section
The Handbook is here
Minister's media release |
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Amusing video on Hayek versus Keynes here. |
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Here's a list of most of them. ICA Members only. |
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