Page 5050 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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are some dreadful overdue figures. We can leave the 30 to 60 and the 60 to 90 days; they are quite clear. But there is a list of overdue figures over the 90 days—119 days, 140 days, 597 days, 131 days, 223 days, 200 days, 191 days, 169 days, 204 days.
If anybody wants to stand up and say that the government is paying on time, then they obviously have not read the payables produced by that particular department in one case. It would be interesting to see what the case is in all of the departments. I congratulate the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Seselja, who put questions on notice back in December 2009. It would be interesting to see if the government can come up with any data to show any improvement.
Those invoices show—for instance, the Chief Minister’s department—percentage of invoices overdue, 19 per cent. That is one in five invoices that were overdue at that time. Executive, three per cent; ACTPLA, 12 per cent—one in eight invoices overdue. Remember, a lot of these are the small businesses. The then Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, 78 per cent, which means basically one in five invoices were not paid on time; ACTEA, 15 per cent, one in seven not paid on time—so it goes on—DECCEW, one in 10 not paid on time; ACT Health, 12 per cent, one in eight not paid on time. And so the list goes on. if people are saying that the government is paying their bills on time and this motion today is unnecessary, then they need to come up with the evidence to prove that.
We saw the document last week tabled by Ms Burch. Quite clearly there are some enormous days outstanding just on that list of payables. A very significant issue is highlighted by this history of delayed payments. Remember, 60 days is two months, 90 days is three months. What is two months to a small business? Well, two months to a small business is a significant period. Two months is the period during which a small business has to be able to pay its bills and has to pay its staff while waiting for payment from the ACT government. It is the period during which a small business might have to rely on obtaining funds through an overdraft or drawing into its cash reserves. All that comes at an additional cost to the small business.
We all know that overdrafts have relatively high rates of interest imposed. If a business has no other sources of funds to carry it through the period that it is waiting for the ACT government to pay its bills, it can be a very distressing time for small and medium businesses. These periods are very important to these businesses and organisations. How do they carry on their businesses or deliver their services if there are gaps in their cash flow? Of course, there is always the knock-on effect to the businesses to which they owe money.
I turn to the motion. This component of the Canberra Liberals small business policy was announced by the Leader of the Opposition in his speech to the National Press Club last week. It was well received by the community. There are four elements to my motion. First, all invoices up to a threshold of $1 million will be paid within 45 days. This will ensure that small businesses can sustain their business activity. It gives government time to do the necessary checking that is required.
We recognise that there are times when there are delays in receiving the invoice, managing invoices internally and resolving any issues with the invoice, hence the
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