SME Highlights

1 - Special guest at latest SME Open Forum

The Vice Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) joined us at our latest SME Open Forum giving an overview of the new relaxation of the collective bargaining rules to benefit small businesses. The Vice Chair also fielded questions from members on payment times and unfair contract term protections. Thank you to those members in attendance and your positive engagement. Look out for calendar invites for the next Open Forum where you get direct access to Consult Australia’s President Gerry Doyle, CEO Nicola Grayson and Head of Policy and Government Relations Kristy Eulenstein.

2 - Federal and state financial aid for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns

With the NSW lockdown, and shorter lockdowns in Vic and SA it is a good opportunity to remind small businesses of the range of federal and state financial aid available if your business has been impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns. In NSW support measures include cashflow payments and payroll tax deferral. For Vic support measures include the business continuity fund, small business COVID hardship fund and the commercial tenancy relief scheme. Visit state government websites for more detail.

3 - Government policies supporting faster payments

Getting paid on time is one of the biggest struggles of small business. A range of government policies seek to address this issue. The Commonwealth’s Payment Times Procurement Connected Policy requires large businesses (those with an annual income of more than $100 million) that are awarded government contracts of over $4 million to pay suppliers’ invoices (of up to $1 million) within 20 calendar days, or face interest penalties. These large businesses are also required to report their payment terms and practices under the Payment Times Reporting Scheme, increasing transparency of payment times. Also, for those working on NSW projects, large businesses who contract with NSW Government agencies for goods and services contracts valued at more than $7.5 million will be required to pay small business sub-contractors within 20 business days. Remembering that if you contract directly with the NSW Government, you are expected to be paid within five days under the Faster Payment Terms Policy.

4 - Positive engagement with local government across the country

The team has been working hard to engage with local councils around the country that members have nominated as having concerning contracts. So far, every engagement has been positive with councils being receptive to discussing fitness for purpose, consequential loss and similar onerous terms. We have briefed councils on the state of the current insurance market, urging them to re-think how they rely on insurance as a risk mitigation tool. If you have concerns with local government procurement, please contact your local State/ Territory Manager for assistance.

5 - NSW refreshes its SME and Regional Procurement Policy

Earlier this year we submitted on the barriers to small business supplying to NSW government. In response to that consultation, the Small and Medium Enterprise and Regional Procurement Policy has been refreshed. A key improvement has been the shift to allow direct engagement by government agencies with SMEs and regional businesses for services up to $150,000 (previously the limit was $50,000). This applies even where there is a wholeof-government contract in place. Another key win is the requirement on agencies to first consider SMEs for procurements up to $3 million where direct engagement is permitted. The policy is available on the NSW government website and through the NSW Small Business Commissioner.

6 - See you at the online SME Summit!

With the success of last year’s Inaugural SME Summit, the team is looking forward to seeing you at this year’s event. Once again, the online Summit has been designed by and for small and medium businesses. We’ve secured an impressive line-up of guests to guide discussions on the business-critical issues facing small and medium businesses right now as well as a dedicated session on insurance. We will have break-out sessions covering people, pipeline, practice and procurement, all topical issues and it will be hard to choose between them! Members will have free access, while non-members will be charged a fee (reimbursable against our membership fee if they join within four weeks of the event!). Check the events page of our website to find out more and register.

Be engaged, get value!

The best way to get value from your membership is to engage with Consult Australia, be it through events and education, by responding to calls for input or just contacting your State/Territory Manager to vent about current business frustrations. •

Over the past few months our team has had great conversations with some of our small business members, including:

- Australian Consulting Engineers

- ACS Engineers

- Lote Consulting

- mlei Consulting Engineers

- Orion Consulting

- Peritas

- Porter Consulting Engineers

- Red Fire Engineers