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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.

• We argued successfully internationally (2003 & 2005) at the ILO for recognition of self-employed people!
• We were instrumental in achieving the Independent Contractors Act 2006 securing the first form of unfair contract protections.
• Pushed hard for the expansion of Small Business Commissioners across Australia for cheap, effective dispute resolution. (Still more to be achieved on this!)
• Our ten-year campaign for really effective unfair contract laws succeeded in 2005 with the laws starting in late 2006. And these laws have resulted in all the banks being forced to change their small business contracts in 2017.

And persistently we’re fought for fair treatment of self-employed people by the Australian Taxation Office. But phew!!! Is that a tough campaign or what!!  More on this in the near future!

So now, after 18 years, we’ve re-branded as Self Employed Australia. Our new url is www.selfemployedaustralia.com.au. But we’re still the same, with the same punch and fight in us. We’ll have more news on this soon.

So why change our name? The reasons are simple.

• The International Labour Organization endorsed the (global) legal principle and fact that ‘employment law should not interfere in commercial relationships’.  And what defines self-employed people is that ‘we’ earn our income through commercial contracts not employment contracts.
• There are 2,074,900 self employed people in Australia. Each one of us is effectively our own business. But we need key rights secured in practice, not just theory, if we are to run our businesses and contribute to our families and society.

These core rights are what we at Independent Contractors Australia (now Self Employed Australia) have been arguing for and will continue to advocate. The 3 core rights are:

• Access to genuine (not rorted) commercial contracts.
• Access to cheap, quick, commercial dispute resolution
• Certainty, fairness and reliability in tax treatment.

The need for these secure rights is not just for the 1,012,200 independent contractors in Australia but for all of the 2,074,900 self-employed people in Australia. It makes sense for us to rebrand to Self Employed Australia because this more accurately describes the people we seek to help.

And so here’s to the next 18 years of advocacy!