The Albanese Labor Government is releasing a new Statement of Expectations for the Payment Times Reporting Regulator to support improved payment times for small businesses.
This new Statement sets expectations for the Regulator to foster a culture of prompt payment times by increasing the visibility and accessibility of payment times data.
This will incentivise faster payment times and enable Australia's record 2.6 million small businesses to better understand and interpret findings.
It reinforces the Regulator's role to support regulated entities to meet and comply with their obligations by providing appropriate guidance, education and practical tools, and adopting a proportionate approach to compliance action.
The Regulator plays an important role in shining a light on large business's poor payment performance while highlighting exemplars to incentivise faster and fairer payment practices to small businesses.
The revised Statement reflects the overhaul of the Payment Times Reporting Scheme under the Albanese Labor Government.
Since the overhaul of the Scheme, the Regulator has launched the new Payment Times Reports Register and dashboards with greater functionality and better accessibility to assess big businesses' payment data to their small business suppliers.
These tools are assisting small businesses to better understand and interpret payment times data, providing them with several ways to interact, compare and draw insights.
The reforms are improving transparency, fostering a fairer business environment and incentivising large businesses to pay faster which will support the growth and sustainability of small businesses nationwide.
The Statement aligns with the Albanese Labor Government's commitment to supporting small businesses and ensuring they have the environment they need to thrive.
The Government is investing $33.4 million to implement reforms to improve payment times for small businesses.
The Statement of Expectations is available on the Treasury website and the Payment Times Reports Register and dashboards are available on the Payment Times Reporting Regulator website.
Quotes attributable to the Minister for Small Business, Julie Collins MP
"One of the biggest issues small businesses raise with me is better payment times.
"That's why our Government has worked hard to improve fairness and ensure big businesses are paying small businesses on time.
"Today's action is another important part of our reforms.
"Small businesses are the engine room of our economy and it is critical we continue to back them with our reforms to payment times."
