COSBOA represents small business people on many government and industry forums and committees. See here for a list

The Policies of COSBOA Chairman Ken Phillips

Peter Strong's Articles and Comments

Grace Collier's Workplace Relations Blog

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Is technology bridging the gap or creating a digital divide between big business and us? Will the NBN be helpful or will big business control search engines to our detriment? We want to know what YOU think.

Take our 5 minute survey to tell us how you are handling the IT challenges in your business.

And then register to join the conversation, live, at one of our Roundtable discussions. These Roundtables will be held at:

Melbourne February 28
Sydney March 13
Brisbane March 20
(Parking will be provided at all venues)

Peter Strong, our Executive Director, will attend each Roundtable to gather information needed to influence government.

Find out more here: http://emcknowledge.com/smbroundtable/
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On !9 January our Executive Director, Peter Strong, and our Deputy Chairman, Amanda Lynch, met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the lodge. They reported that the meeting was excellent and focused on the real issues for small business. Peter Strong reported that he was pleased that the conversation did not dwell on generic business issues but on the particular issues facing small business people. We expect some high level outcomes for small business in 2012.

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New Website On the Way - soon we will have a new more interactive site with a new logo - Excellent!

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COSBOA's Executive Director, Peter Strong, has been appointed as a Foundation member of Australia's first Retail Council. The government has recognised the Council of Small Business as a key representative of small retailers. See here for more information.
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Hear excerpts from a discussion held in November 2011 between Ken Phillips and Peter Strong on small business. HERE
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October 2011 - Changing of the guard. The Council of COSBOA has expressed its thanks to the outgoing Chairman Geoff Fader. Geoff has not sought reappointment at the AGM and will continue as a Director. During Geoff's time as Chairman the profile of COSBOA has grown and the needs of people in their own business have received long sought after acknowledgment in important areas such as health and banking.

The new Chairman Ken Phillips brings with him a life time of experience in small business as well as a strong background in contract law through his role as CEO of the Independent Contractors of Australia.

The new deputy Chairman is Amanda Lynch who as CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Australia has deep connections with and understanding of small business people and their needs.
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A Landmark speech from Rod Sims, new Chairman of the ACCC is welcomed and provides a pivotal moment for small business and the ACCC. See speech here or download a copy from the ACCC website.
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The Harmonisation of OH&S laws across the nation is great idea - as long as it doesn't take away our human rights and make the workplace less safe - see here
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Business planning is one of the surest ways to ensure your business starts off on the right foot. Go to one of the country's most innovative online courses and develop your own customised business plan and look forward to a bright future. Click the logo
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Thank you South Australia - fairness for franchisees (and don't the supporters of unscrupulous franchisors hate it!)
______________________________________________We have been asking for a decent Small Business Impact Statement to be completed as part of any major commercial development. The ACT government, in their wisdom, has implemented this process. But big business always find a way around things - check out the quality of the Small Business Impact Statement from the Queensland Investment Corporation (Like Westfields only from Qld). It is appalling and shows the arrogance of the big landlords.
The COSBOA Communique2011 is out now.
2011 COSBOA Small Business Champion Announced

Ken Phillips, Deputy Chair of COSBOA and Executive Officer of Independent Contractors Australia announced on Tuesday night of our summit that Mark Brennan has been selected as the 2011 COSBOA Small Business Champion.

The announcement was made at the launch of the NAB National Small Business Summit in Sydney in the presence of Deputy PM and Treasurer this evening.

Mark Brennan was the inaugural Victorian Small Business Commissioner being appointed in 2003 and staying in the position until 2010. The Small Business Commissioner position was created first in Victoria and is now being replicated in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. ..... Read more here
See here for information on the Small Business Soapbox, an opportunity for small business people and supporters to have their say.

See here for our views on the Superannuation industry which is more like George Orwell's Animal Farm

Peter Strong thinks that we can have two different workplace relation systems, one for them and one for the rest of us? See here for more information.

Grace Collier continues to have opinions around workplace relations see her thoughts here
Is this the best time for a C-Tax?
More than half of all Australian small businesses (52 per cent) think the economy is in worse shape than six months ago and only one-in-five expects it to improve before 2012. Small business confidence has slipped 10 per cent since the start of this year and 31 per cent since the end of 2009

The findings, released today, come from the third Telstra Business and the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) “Back to Business” survey, which examined 1000 firms nationwide to get a mid-year pulse check of the small business community. To read more... click here or go to News and Events

Carbon Tax - our first response HERE - our next response is HERE and we note that big businesses want us to come out and blindly attack this tax. We have not praised the tax and probably won't - who praises new tax?, But we do want more information about the impact on small business and we are aggressively seeking that information. We will not be bullied by big business people who are quite happy to support unfair clauses in contract law and competition policy that protects big business and makes our lives more difficult. We will make up our own mind based on information that must be provided by the government. If we do not receive that information then we definitely will not support the tax. Check out one business owners views HERE - his views are based on real business experience.
Compare the pair - which superannuation fund collection system looks better?
Reproduced here is an email from a very dispirited Victorian small business owner. Are they right or are they wrong? Have you got a similar story to tell so that we can publish it? Go to the News and Events on the side, click on this story and post your replies. We would love to hear your thoughts.
Will the internet be a level playing field? Is it a fair place for consumers and for small business now? We have some ideas on that.

Here is an interesting spin on the superannuation system. It is called "The frogs are boiling, the mice are dodging elephants and we are all looking for a clean tea cup. The game goes on." Interesting.

Beyond Blue and the University of Tasmania put a human face on small business - Excellent - see here

Coalition aims to slash red tape - and they name the red tape they will slash - Superannuation Collection. This is great news! See how it works here and see how it makes more money for the members of the superfunds here. See a comment from a COSBOA supporter on this issue here. Is superannuation just a game?

See Peter Strong's latest rant against red tape here

Grace Collier has found out that Fair Work Australia has decided that in only 2 of 1876 cases that an employer has managed to follow the fair dismissal Code - seems that the code doesn't work - well at least not for the person who employs someone.
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On the 19th of July COSBOA and Minister Senator Sherry launched the Business Building Blocks program - Excellent news.
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COSBOA has developed a new way to share information and ideas about small business policies and issues. Find out how you can participate in The Soapbox
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HERE is a response we received from a small business owner to our media release on Red Tape.
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Why are we forced by government to do work for big business and not get paid for our effort, read here and find out what we have to do.
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Budget 2011 - our response (not much focus on small business and more red tape)
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A report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2009 showed that SMEs carry a bigger burden of compliance costs than big business

COSBOA has known this for a long time but it is good to see it in writing. The information is in a report supplied to Treasury and you can see the report HERE

The report shows that SMEs had to lose over 12% of their profits to compliance while big business only had to lose less than 3%. So we need to have red tape removed and we have the perfect opportunity with the current review of superannuation where we can take employers out of the collection process altogether. We can also stop the addition of paid parental leave compliance right now as well otherwise that rate will go up even further.
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Climate Change responses from government - the Carbon Tax
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Superannuation should no longer be collected and distributed by employers.

COSBOA is proposing that superannuation guarantee contributions would be included in the pay of an individual and collected as taxes as part of PAYG processes.

The superannuation component of the tax deductions would be extracted from the PAYG contributions by the ATO. The ATO would distribute the superannuation contributions to the relevant funds, based upon information from the tax payer. The tax rates would need to be adjusted to ensure that the super component is not taxed.

The cost of distribution of payments would be provided by the superannuation funds through a ‘commission on funds received’, ensuring there is no increase in costs for the ATO or any impact on the federal budget. (based on user pays principles)..... Read more in News and Events.
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International Women's Day Celebrates 100 Years

Over 700,000 women run their own business and at least 35,000 are pregnant - why don't they count?

COSBOA supports international women's day and asks why there are hundreds of thousands of women in business who cannot claim child care while big business can claim costs of on-site child care facilities without any Fringe Benefits Tax obligations......... Read more in News and Events  
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Speech

Speech

The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA), is Australia’s peak body exclusively representing the interests of small businesses.

Our goals are to:

• Promote and support the development of small businesses in Australia;
• Advocate to advance the interests of small business in Australia, including through policy change and regulatory reform;
• Foster an increased awareness and understanding of the role of small business in Australia amongst public servants and elected government officials, larger businesses, the media and the general community read more ››

COSBOA Small Business Champions
These are the people who we believe have been leaders in fighting the good fight for small business owners

2010      Group Training Australia
2009      Michael Schaper
2008      Ian Baldock
2007      David Koch
2006      Alan Jones
2005      Dick Smith

Policies

Click here to see more details on COSBOA's policies

Important Resources

The following links are provided by COSBOA as resources for our members and supporters:
Follow us on twitter: @COSBOA

HRC