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Bill Shorten’s Labor has announced that it will make unfair contract terms illegal and impose major fines for breaches. This is a position that we totally endorse.

Unfair contract laws protecting small business people were created in November 2015. Big businesses had 12 months to fix their contracts before the laws took effect. But big businesses did nothing. The ACCC has worked hard to enforce the laws but the task is huge when large businesses won’t voluntarily comply. (Idiots! Big business, that is!)  More...

We’re most pleased to see the head of the Australian Consumer and Competition Council (ACCC), Rod Sims, call for the unfair contract laws to be given ‘teeth’.  Good on you, Rod. We back you on this one!

The unfair contract laws for small business passed parliament in late 2015. We called the laws ‘A welcome disruption to the economy.’ The passing of the laws was the end of a seven-year campaign by us battling the big end of town. Here’s the history of our campaign. We nearly didn’t succeed, as the dollar limit on contracts was to be set so low as to neuter the laws. But the Senate came to the rescue and amended the laws.  More...

Yes, we have to feel sorry these days for employees who are forced to attend the staff Xmas party. All the merriment has changed.

First, employees have to undergo HR training and briefings on how to behave or not behave. Hugs are banned. Be careful who you smile at and how! No sitting on Santa’s lap. Conversations and greetings must be religiously diversified and non-judgmental. Champagne is replaced with sparkling non-alcoholic lolly water. Sorry, no jokes! More...

More good news on the unfair contract front! But first some background.

Back around 2009, when we were talking to big businesses about having fair contracts, the chief legal counsel for one of the big banks said to us, “We’ll do what we’re made to do.” We realized then how difficult our campaign would be. But we succeeded. The new small business unfair contract laws we pushed for started at the end of 2016. More...

We don’t know if the two are related, but More...

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...

It’s great to report the fabulous work being done by the competition regulator in stamping out unfair contracts. Our ten-year campaign to get the laws in place really is paying off for self-employed small business people. More...

If you’ve followed the revelations of the $165 million tax fraud, you’ll know that one of the ATO’s top enforcement officers allegedly sought to cut a deal for his son, one of the ringleaders of the fraud. 

This case, of which we’ll hear lots more, highlights how self-employed people can get caught up in scams quite quickly. The ACCC is always warning us about scams and it pays to keep watch on the ACCC scam websites: here and here.   More...

Mostly we’re complaining about bad government behaviour. And we should! And we will continue!

BUT, it makes a pleasant change to report some good news.

Workcover NSW:
As far back as 2005 we had been actively trying to defend self-employed people in NSW from the NSW WorkCover Authority. In 2012 the new government undertook a review. In our submission we stated that the workers compensation scheme is 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...