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Well here’s a turn-up for us! In 2000 (goodness, 18 years ago!) we formed Independent Contractors Australia to advocate for the rights of self-employed people. And in that time we’ve been more successful than we could have envisaged. More...

Last week, our Executive Director, Ken Phillips, contemplated some ‘revolutionary’ thoughts around self-employment as part of the summer break ‘think’ process.  

Trump
But those thoughts are minor compared with President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals for self-employed people in the USA. According to Forbes magazine and CBSNews,  Trump is going to open the tax floodgate for the self-employed, allowing them to access the 15 per cent tax rate he intends to apply to companies.  More...

Against a backdrop of 'revolutionary' social and political developments in 2016, ICA Executive Director Ken Phillips has posted a new blog which looks at the prospects for the new world of work in the year ahead. Noting the seemingly unstoppable growth of all forms of self-employment, Ken also examines some of the adverse reactions to self-employment and surveys some recent (and quite diverse) academic discussion about the value of 'being your own boss'. You can read Ken's full blog post here. More...

At ICA, we're a little exhausted because we’ve spent 10 months heavily involved in organising this event. The National Small Business Conference (10-12 August, Melbourne)  is just 2 weeks away. We believe it’s important that at least once a year politicians, bureaucrats, academics and small business people get together to discuss small business issues.

This year’s conference has a stunning line-up of presenters. We highly recommend you look at your timetable and budget to see if you can attend at least part of the conference. There’s great value, we think. More...

At ICA, we come across all sort of weird attacks on the self-employed. But one of the strangest is that we ‘screw over ourselves’. That was the argument mounted in California’s self-described ‘premier monthly business publication’, Comstock.

The ‘save us from ourselves’ argument was essentially the justification for Australia’s recent (fortunately failed) attempt to destroy the businesses of 35,000 owner-drivers. Lawyers are preparing the case for the class action to recover losses. Info here.  More...

We’re heavily involved in assisting to organise the National Small Business Conference (Melbourne, 11-12 August)  which we strongly recommend you consider attending, if you have the time.

The conference is ‘into’ innovation. But there are limits! Watch this very funny YouTube clip presented by US comedienne Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It’s amazing what innovators can do with the humble AA battery! Ha! More...

Global stock-markets are in a crashing frenzy over the economic ‘slow down’ in China. Yet China optimists would say that there’s an overreaction and that China is reshaping to a consumer society.

Perhaps the ‘new’ China of rampant consumerism was on raw display in the wildly popular Chinese TV dating show If you are the one. With 36 million regular viewers, one young female contestant disclosed her ‘love’ match criteria with the words ‘I would rather cry in a BMW than laugh on the back of a bicycle.’  Her comment made her an overnight celebrity. More...

Last week, ICA’s Executive Director, Ken Phillips, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Turnbull which was published in Business Spectator. It was about the PM’s desire for an innovation society. Ken said small business innovation is in trouble because of the Tax Office and other matters. He said that there are two tasks:  More...

We’ve been pretty pleased with the creation of the Unfair Contract Protection laws for small business people. We feel that our campaigning for this since 2010 has been worthwhile.  

But it really came home recently as to why we do what we do. Robert Gottliebsen had an article in Business Spectator on the reform and there was a blog comment from Danielle which is worth quoting in full. Danielle said: More...

Just last week the debate over workplace issues revved up again with the release by the Abbott government of its Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations. Naturally, the unions and the ALP are salivating at the idea that this will be a re-run of WorkChoices, almost guaranteeing them a win at the next election. ICA will be putting a submission to the Inquiry. More...