THE 2015 Australian Small Business Champion Awards applications are set to close on February 18.

The awards recognise small business leaders in wide variety of industry categories. Small business people dedicate their lives in serving their communities and deserve recognition.

These awards are the only dedicated national program recognising small business.

All small businesses in Australia’s retail, services and manufacturing industries are eligible to enter the awards – there are 39 categories in total.

Everybody loves a winner, and the awards will put outstanding businesses on the map, making customers, suppliers and communities stand up and take notice.

Steve Loe, founder of the awards and managing director of Precedent Productions said, “Now in its 17th year, the national awards program has established a reputation for excellence and has become known as the ‘Oscars’ of the small business community in Australia.

“It provides an opportunity for small businesses to celebrate and receive national recognition for their achievements.”

Entries for the 2015 Australian Small Business Champion Awards are now being accepted and close on Wednesday, 18 February 2015.

The Australian Small Business Champion Awards are proudly supported by major sponsors TrueLocal, and associate sponsors BizCover, Castaway Financial Forecasting System, FrontLine and Key Person of Influence.

Businesses throughout Australia will be competing on a national level to be named Australian Small Business Champion in their category at the national awards ceremony in April at The Westin Sydney.

Entry forms are available at www.businesschampions.com.au

For further information about the Australian Small Business Champion Awards visit www.businesschampions.com.au.

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THE Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said retailers were calling for all credit card systems to be regulated in the same way, as outlined in the David Murray Financial Services Inquiry (FSI) submission and further confirmed by the latest Ipsos survey.

ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said 94 percent of all businesses surveyed said credit card systems should be regulated in the same way.

“This overwhelming response confirms what retailers were telling us as part of our David Murray FSI submission.

“In the final report to government, the FSI report confirmed there was a need to bring all card systems under the same rules and regulations as the two big card systems.

“The ARA will be writing to the new Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as part of the FSI process and is meeting with him today to reinforce retailers’ position on this issue - that the excessive merchant fees charged by card schemes such as Amex and Diners Club need to be addressed so retailers can reduce or remove surcharging as with the two big card systems.

“The truth is there is a distortion in the marketplace by not regulating Amex and Diners Club cards, and with 55 percent and 23 percent market reach respectively, retailers feel they need to accept these cards because of promotional schemes and to ease transactions for consumers.

“Because of this skew retailers either have to absorb the excessive merchant cost or pass on a surcharge to consumers, when they don’t in most circumstances if they use the regulated MasterCard or Visa schemes.

“It is time to address this imbalance and create a level playing field for all payment systems,” Mr Zimmerman said.
 
*Click here to view survey infographic
 
Since 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body representing Australia’s $265 billion retail sector, which employs over 1.2 million people. The ARA ensures retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 5,000 independent and national retail members throughout Australia.

Visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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SIX lenders out of more than 100 monitored by finder.com.au have so far announced rate cuts to their variable home loans since the Reserve Bank announced the cash rate drop yesterday.

These include Bank of Queensland, Commonwealth Bank, ING Direct, Maitland Mutual Building Society, ME Bank and Westpac.

"The biggest rate cut was by Westpac, announcing a 0.28 percentage point reduction effective February 20, 2015," Finder.com.au money expert Michele Hutchison said.

"However Westpac still holds one of the highest standard variable rates, which will drop to 5.70 percent on February 20.

"The lowest standard variable rate out of these six to have dropped so far is by ING Direct, which will be offering a standard variable rate of 4.97 percent.

"We're expecting all lenders to make their announcements some time over the next week and the effective dates are so far from February 20.

"Borrowers need to be careful with the announcements they hear to make sure they understand their home loan details because the effective date could be several weeks after the announcement.

"For instance, if you repay your variable mortgage on a monthly basis, your reduced repayments won't come into effect until next month," Ms Hutchison said.

"Borrowers will receive notification by their lender with a rate change, usually by the post, and it will explain the new interest rate and new minimum monthly repayments. Keep in mind that you don't have to reduce your repayments – you can call your lender and ask them to keep your repayments at the former amount as this will save you on interest charges and pay off your home loan sooner.

"For instance, let's say you have an average $300,000 home loan at 5.35 percent average variable interest so monthly repayments are about $1,675. If your lender passes on a 0.25 percentage point discount and offers a new minimum repayment of about $1,629. By keeping your repayments at $1,675, you could potentially save over $20,000 and shave almost two years off the 30-year loan term."

To find the latest updates as they come through: www.finder.com.au/rba-cash-rate

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AN INTEREST RATE cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia tomorrow (Tuesday) would risk stoking the real estate fire a QUT economist has warned

QUT financial economist Dr David Willis said the RBA should not move on interest rates while inflation and the Australian dollar were at reasonable levels.

The RBA has kept the cash rate at 2.5 per cent for the past 18 months.

"The risk of lowering interest rates is that the market may assume the RBA will continue to cut further and the currency will fall below its preferred level," Dr Willis said.

"Last year the RBA made it quite clear that it would like to see the Australian dollar at about 75 US cents so with it currently sitting at 78 cents it is close to their preferred level.

"In addition the RBA doesn't want to risk stoking the real estate fire and potentially creating an artificial bubble in the housing market.

"So I cannot see any hard and fast reason why the RBA should move."

Dr Willis said he expected growth in the Australian economy would be below the long term average but the chances of a recession were "close to nil".

"With inflation still in the middle of its preferred range, there is no really compelling reason to lower rates as the economy is not in danger of deflation, as it is in Europe and Japan, and is in no danger of recession," he said.

"The AUD will fall over this year but it will be a slow decline which the economy can adjust to as it falls.

"The Australian economy is still under structural change from mining to consumption-led growth. But with low interest rates already and low petrol prices, there is enough stimulus in the economy and plenty for the consumer to either spend, save or pay debt down."

Dr Willis said the rate of unemployment was the main issue for the RBA.

"But dealing with this may be more a need for fiscal stimulus than anything the RBA can do as monetary policy is already quite accommodating," he said.

www.qut.edu.au

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