Payment Times Reporting Framework: discussion paper stage 2

Overview

The small business function transferred to our department from the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business on 1 February 2020.

Update May 2020: Rules exposure draft

We sought views on the draft subordinate legislation, known as Minister's Rules, to be made under the Payment Times Reporting Bill

Update March 2020: Bill exposure draft

We sought views on the draft Bill to enable the Payment Times Reporting Framework.

About this consultation

The Australian Government plans to introduce a new Payment Times Reporting Scheme for large businesses and large government enterprises with a total annual income of over $100 million to publicly report information on their small business payment terms and times. The scheme will:

• increase transparency of the payment performance of large businesses so small businesses can make more informed decisions about their potential customers
• drive cultural change to improve payment times

Discussion paper

The former Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business undertook the second stage of consultation on the design of the scheme through a discussion paper:

• Payment times stage 2 discussion paper [773KB PDF] [404KB DOCX]

Specifically, the consultation sought stakeholders’ views on three complex issues:

• How should large businesses identify their small business suppliers?
• How should large businesses report? For example, as a group, separate entities or both.
• Are there implementation issues to consider?

The consultation also included face to face workshops in Perth and Sydney, one on one meetings and a survey of over 300 small businesses.