The Albanese Labor Government is delivering on its commitment to improve payment times for small businesses with new reforms commencing this week.
The reforms are included in the Payment Times Reporting Amendment Act 2024 which passed the Parliament in July and the overhauled Payment Times Reporting Rules have now been released.
Today also marks the launch of the new Payment Times Reports Register and dashboards with new functionality and better accessibility to assess big businesses’ payment data to their small business suppliers.
These tools will assist users of the Payment Times Reports Register to better understand and interpret payment times data, providing users several ways to interact, compare and draw insights.
In December 2023 the Albanese Labor Government committed to overhauling the Payment Times Reporting Scheme following a review of its first two years of operation.
Commencement of these reforms delivers on this and marks a new era of transparency and accountability in large business payment practices across Australia.
The dashboards will help shine a light on poor large business payment performance while highlighting exemplars to incentivise faster and fairer payment practices to small businesses.
Small businesses are the engine room of our economy and it is imperative that they receive timely payments to maintain their operations and growth.
The reforms will improve transparency, foster a fairer business environment and incentivise large businesses to pay faster which will support the growth and sustainability of small businesses nationwide.
The overhaul of the Scheme will:
- Create new incentives for large businesses to pay faster by setting benchmarks and empowering the Regulator to identify best and worst payers.
- Require large businesses to report more meaningful information.
- Reduce regulatory burdens by consolidating and streamlining reporting.
The Albanese Labor Government is committed to supporting small businesses and ensuring they have the environment they need to thrive.
The Government encourages large businesses to engage and become familiar with the new rules to prepare for the transition to the new report requirements.
The Payment Times Reports Register, dashboards and regulatory guidance will be published on the Payment Times Reporting Scheme website.
Quotes attributable to Minister Julie Collins:
“Small businesses have spoken to me about the benefits of large suppliers paying quickly, and how this has helped cash flow.
That is why we have acted to improve fairness and ensure big businesses are paying small businesses on time which our reforms will deliver.
Our Government is investing $33.4 million as part of the Government response to the independent review of the Payment Times Reporting Act conducted by Dr Craig Emerson.
Labor is the party for small business. Small businesses are at the heart of the local community I represent, and they will always be at the heart of our Government’s decision making.”