Commonwealth Introduces Bills To Establish Small Business Ombudsman Role

Thursday 4 June 2015 @ 11.54 a.m. | Corporate & Regulatory

This week, the Minister for Small Business introduced two new bills into the House of Representatives.  The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015 and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015 both aiming to establish an Ombudsman for small business, who will have dual advocacy and assistance functions.  The Ombudsman would be appointed by the Governor-General to a five year term, and would be eligible for re-appointment. 

The Minister said the bills would “fulfil a key coalition election commitment” and were “yet another demonstration of the commitment of the Abbott government to the small businesses and family enterprises of Australia.” 

Advocacy

According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the Ombudsman’s advocacy function will include:

  • undertaking research and inquiries into legislation, policies and practices affecting small businesses;
  • reporting and giving advice to the Minister on those matters;
  • contributing to inquiries by others into those matters;
  • contributing to developing national strategies on those matters;
  • reviewing proposals relating to those matters and advising the Minister on them; and
  • promoting best practice in dealing with small businesses.

 The Ombudsman will be able to require persons to give evidence at hearings and provide information and documents, in order to assist their research and inquiry activities.

Assistance

 The Ombudsman’s assistance function will include “responding to requests for assistance by referring requests to the appropriate Commonwealth, state or territory agency; or, if the request for assistance relates to a matter within the Ombudsman’s remit, recommending how the dispute may be managed”. The Ombudsman will have additional information-gathering powers, including the power to conduct and take evidence in hearings.  Additionally, the Ombudsman will have “the ability to publicise that an entity has refused to engage in, or has withdrawn from, a recommended ADR [alternative dispute resolution] process.”

Interaction with other Agencies and States

Currently, the role of the national Small Business Commissioner exists, but has no legislative backing.  The Minister said the new bills would allow the new ombudsman to have “strong, legislated powers” that went beyond the “limitations of the current commissioner’s role”.  There are also small business commissioners in NSW, Victoria, WA and SA, but not in Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT.  According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the Ombudsman will be expected to work co-operatively with the existing Commonwealth and state roles and agencies and “complement the services they provide”.  The Bill specifically provides that state and territory laws should operate concurrently with the Bill.

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Sources:

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bill 2015, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015 and supplementary materials - available from TimeBase's LawOne Service

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