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The former Abbott Government Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson, has admitted to the ABC that he was receiving payment from the Franchise Council of Australia while still a Member of Parliament. The admission came on the 7.30 Report viewable here.

You might remember that we did battle with Abbott and Billson back in 2015 when they brought in the Unfair Contract Bill limiting it to contracts up to $100,000.  More...

Big business ‘leaders’, such as the Business Council of Australia for example, have for many months been openly expressing their worry that they are failing to influence public policy.

It’s not such a surprise. Australia’s big business leaders have for some time openly and through political backdoors been trying to kill off important economic reforms that make for a better Australian economy.  More...

Tomorrow, Saturday 12 November, the new unfair contract laws for small business people come into effect.

At ICA we can be rightly proud of these laws because we spent seven years arguing for the laws. There’s no question that these laws have happened because of ICA. 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...

This month the Federal Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson, released the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.  This is a big step forward for Australian small- and medium-sized businesses supplying to the supermarket sector.

The Code will force the supermarkets, particularly Coles and Woolworths, to have proper contracts with suppliers to which the supermarkets must adhere. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission will monitor the Code. More...

2014 saw a raft of commitments and undertakings from the Coalition on policies affecting small business and independent contractors. Commitments are fine, but it’s delivery that matters. So it was heartening to see some action in early January—notably with the new franchising code. The Western Australian Council of Small Business (COSBA) was quick to congratulate Minister Bruce Billson on bringing in the new franchise code. ICA agrees with COSBA that this is a hugely important reform that will give thousands of small business franchisees a better deal. More...

After a year of much talk and many promises, it's good to see that there's been some action on these two important small business issues.

On illegal logging and timber importation, we were vocal in our criticism of the government's proposed legislation in September and October last year. It's good to see that the PM’s parliamentary secretary for deregulation (now Assistant Treasurer) Josh Frydenberg has given a commitment to fix the problems. More...

Following on from our earlier post on the changes to the small business environment, here's another reform that is long overdue! Treasurer Joe Hockey has told big businesses that they won’t get government handouts for badly run businesses. Let badly run big businesses sort out their own problems, I say. That’s what small business people have to do! Here’s my assessment of corporate welfare and its close connection to union activity. More...