THE Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell has welcomed the Federal Government’s new measures announced as part of its Deregulation Agenda and looks forward to working closely with the taskforce on its key priorities.  

“The next wave of deregulation reform, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is a step in the right direction to make it easier for small businesses to employ staff and invest in growth,” Ms Carnell said.

“A new online checklist providing small business employers with a guide to employing their first worker, along with a commitment to developing a new prototype ‘regtech’ platform, is encouraging. While this may assist small businesses in hiring a staff member, the industrial award system itself remains highly complex and fluid for small business owners to navigate.

“Small and family businesses are crying out for a simplified system, so they can get on with the job of growing their business," she said.

“That’s why my office is calling on the government to develop an algorithm to be integrated into accounting software to make it easier for small and family businesses to pay wages and entitlements correctly and on time.

“The next logical move would be to clarify the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, to give small and family businesses the confidence they need to employ more Australians.

“We’ve provided the government with our Review of the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, which recommends a suite of changes to help small business employers meet their obligations," Ms Carnell said.

“It’s also critical the government consults widely as part of the deregulation process, which my office is ready to play an active role in, so the small business community is part of these important discussions that affect them directly.

“Of particular interest is the government’s plan to deal with the degree of regulatory complexity, the length of time for approvals and duplication across levels of government. This has the potential to be a game-changer for Australia’s 2.3 million small businesses and family enterprises.

“We will continue to work with the government to achieve the best possible outcomes for the small business sector.”

www.asbfeo.gov.au

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THE Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell is calling on the Federal Government to make it easier for hard-working Australians’ wages and entitlements to be calculated correctly and paid on time.

“We want Australian workers to be paid what they are owed, at the right time,” Ms Carnell said.

“While the vast majority of small businesses fulfil their obligations to their employees, the award system itself is overly complicated and fluid, which can sometimes lead to the employer making honest mistakes.

“Of course employers who deliberately flout the law should be punished, but any new penalties for incorrect payments should take the complexity of the system into account," she said.

“It is critical small businesses be given the chance to rectify payment errors, when it’s clear the mistake was unintentional, rather than being automatically penalised. When penalties do apply, they should be proportionate to the nature of the breach. A fine that a large corporation could absorb, could devastate a small business.

“Small businesses are often run by a single person who does everything from management, to IT and payroll. That makes it difficult for them stay on top of award changes within the elaborate industrial relations system.

“Recent media stories of very large and high-profile Australian businesses who employ skilled and experienced HR teams, underpaying staff highlights the complexity of the award system. That’s why my office is calling for simplification of numerous industry awards, to help reduce payment errors and administration costs," Ms Carnell said.

"The rollout of single touch payroll provides an opportunity to calculate award wages and entitlements through an algorithm integrated into accounting software such as Xero, MYOB, Quicken and other software systems. This payment algorithm could be owned and updated by the Fair Work Commission to ensure correct wages and entitlements are correct and up-to-date.

“Finally, small and family businesses should not have to carry any additional administrative burden prompted by new proposals, particularly when they act quickly to resolve any errors that have been brought to their attention.”

www.asbfeo.gov.au

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ENERGY NETWORKS Australia has welcomed the release by the Tasmanian Government of the Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan.

Chief executive officer of Energy Networks Australia, Andrew Dillon, said hydrogen would play an important role in the sustainable energy future.

"Hydrogen can be produced from excess renewable power, providing clean energy that can be stored for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind isn’t blowing,” Mr Dillon said. “As the energy sector continues to decarbonise and intermittent renewable generation increases, this storage capacity means hydrogen can play an important role in stabilising our energy system.

“Hydrogen technology is already being embraced around the world for domestic and commercial use in gas networks and to fuel passenger and freight trains.”

Mr Dillon said trials of hydrogen production, hydrogen blending into existing networks or exports were underway in every Australian state, with Tasmania’s strategy the latest addition.

“Energy networks are using renewable gases such as hydrogen made from solar and wind power to decarbonise our gas networks,” Mr Dillon said.

A recent update to Gas Vision 2050, released by Energy Networks Australia and the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association, showed that more than $180 million of funding had been committed nationally for hydrogen infrastructure projects.

Energy Networks Australia has previously released research confirming that the injection of hydrogen into Australian gas distribution networks can be done under current gas legislation.

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THE Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed a $13.8 million five-year Queensland Government package to encourage new discoveries of critical minerals to attract more overseas investment, drive more international trade and create more local jobs and economic prosperity.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane, who is in Washington DC as part of a delegation led by Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan to further develop the US-Australia trading partnership on critical minerals, said the package announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was based on consultation with the industry and would hit the right mark at the right time.

“Queensland has globally-significant reserves of copper, nickel, zinc,  graphite, and molybdenum and major deposits of cobalt, rhenium, scandium, tantalum, niobium, lithium, rare earths and vanadium,” he said.

Mr Macfarlane said the funding would including $9 million to unearth more and better geological information to help the industry identify new products and $4.8 million to re-examine old mine tailing and core samples for these minerals.

“These are the key areas QRC and the Queensland Exploration Council urged the Government to focus on and they have delivered.  We thank the Premier, the Deputy Premier, State Development Minister Cameron Dick and Mines Minister Anthony Lynham for the commitment of confidence into this growing sector,” he said.

“We also acknowledge the strong representations from the Australian Workers’ Union to encourage additional investment in exploration.  The AWU, like QRC, knows the investment in exploration delivers the new discoveries and the new jobs,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“Mount Isa itself owes its existence to the discoveries of the lone prospector John Campbell Miles in 1923.  It would be fitting if, through this funding, Queenslanders could welcome major new discoveries to celebrate the centenary of those original discoveries.

Mr Macfarlane said the package followed the government’s earlier commitment to upgrade the Townsville to Mount Isa rail line and commit $80 million to subsidise commercial freight users on the Mount Isa line over four years.

www.qrc.org.au

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