Page 5057 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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I commend my amendment to the Assembly. I note that the first two points in my amendment are exactly the same as Mr Smyth’s. It is good that we all agree that the ACT government is significant as a purchaser of goods and services. I think, also, that all three parties here agree that it is of critical importance that small businesses, and even large businesses, have regular cash flows. One of the reasons it is important that large businesses have regular cash flows is that their cash flows often go down to the smaller businesses, and if there is late payment for a large business, that may lead to eventual late payment for a small business. So it is a positive thing this evening that all three parties agree that we need regular cash flow for small businesses and that we support small businesses.
However, I then come to item (c), which is not the same as the Liberal Party’s motion. The Liberal Party, for reasons unknown to me—Mr Barr did speculate on them—feels that it would be better to change payment arrangements so that they are 45 days rather than 30 days. One of the items in the agreement between the Labor Party and the Greens when we supported the Labor Party to become the government was payment of small business invoices within 30 days with commercial interest on late payments. We put that in because we did recognise how important this issue was for small business, and that for some small businesses there had been problems with this before the last election. That is why this was in here. It is good to see that the Liberal Party is realising that there have been issues, but its solution to the problem could hardly be described as a solution when it is making the time 50 per cent longer than it was before. What sort of solution is that, Liberal Party, to make the time of payment 50 per cent longer?
Note (d) is similar to Mr Smyth’s but not the same. We do note that there are still, unfortunately, significant delays in the payment of some invoices by government and the adverse effect these late payments can have on the capacity of organisations to maintain their functions. I have spoken to a number of small businesspeople who have said that on occasion they do have significant problems in payments of invoices. It seems to be where they put an invoice in and then the government says, “Oh, this thing has to get changed; you didn’t get it quite right,” or where someone is away and we go backwards and forwards.
The Greens are not going to stand up here and say that there are absolutely no issues in this regard; clearly there are some issues in this regard. But Mr Barr’s speech suggested that 85 per cent of all invoices are paid in time, and I have no reason to believe that that statement is not true. Of course, that does leave 15 per cent that are paid late, and for some organisations that could be a significant issue.
We now move to what we call on the government to do. Unlike the Liberal Party, we are not calling on the government to pay invoices more slowly than they do at present. We think that (a) we should call on the government to constantly improve the timeliness of payment of invoices. This is one of the things that government clearly can do better. Eighty-five per cent is good; 100 per cent would not be possible, I am sure, but it is obviously the goal that we should be aiming for.
And then there is (b), which is a combination of part of Mr Smyth’s motion and part what we have added to it. We all agree that we should ensure that, where appropriate,
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