Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too pass on my condolences to John McCarthy's family, his partner, the players, his friends and the extended group of people whose lives he touched. I understand he was part of the Peninsula School, where he was a highly admired athlete and young man. I am sure the Peninsula Old Boys, as they are known, are grieving his loss today, and our thoughts are very much with them.

On a separate matter, I wish to speak about the concerns that many small businesses have raised with me—in fact, I have been inundated with them—about how the introduction of a national business names register has been botched by the government. The concerns are that this is impacting on business viability, that time-poor small business owners and their advisers are involved in battling this new system that is overseen by ASIC, when it was heralded as something that would be a vast improvement for those operating in multiple jurisdictions. It has more recently been characterised as a nightmare for businesses, who have vented their frustrations directly to me, to the responsible ministers and the Prime Minister, and to a number of online journals as well. ASIC have said that it is a matter of some teething challenges and technical errors. I call on the government to act decisively to correct these errors, to put in place a clear strategy to remedy the shortcomings that are painfully evident. I will be seeking a full briefing from ASIC, from the government, on just what steps it will take.

This is at a time when, according to Dun & Bradstreet, small business start-ups are down by 95 per cent. So the traffic that ASIC would have expected to have to contend with is far less than would ordinarily be the case and, certainly, far less than when the idea of a national business names registration system was first identified and pursued by the Howard government. It dates back that far, this good idea. It was supported by the coalition, cautioning the government that, for the small business community to see it as a success, it was all about the implementation. We pointed to a number of concerns. We obtained assurances from the minister that all of these risks had been identified and that they would be easily addressed by the way in which the names registration system would be rolled out. In fact, you might recall that the consequential provisions act was to take effect before the Business Names Registration Act took effect. We worked cooperatively and collaboratively with the government to overcome that self-created obstacle to the implementation of this measure.

Now we face a number of new challenges, and I will just run through a few of them. The delay in actually getting a name registered is causing great concern to businesses and business advisers, particularly small businesses that have been involved in purchasing an existing enterprise, assuming that the business name would be part of that transaction. Instead, they learn that there is a 28-day period before a cancelled business name can be transferred and that, in that intervening period, they just have to hope someone else does not pinch the business name. If you have paid handsomely for a business with an existing and recognised business name, there should be a seamless transition of that business name; it should not place your purchase in doubt. This has been identified as a major concern. Even the use of the ABN as an identifier is a particular challenge. That particular tool has caught some businesses off-guard and they have then had to go and create another business identifier just to find their way through the website.

Other concerns relate to location-specific names. I was contacted by a home maintenance business that had its name registered in one state, and there was a similar business name registered in another state. You might recall, Madam Acting Speaker, that there was to be a designation of the location as part of the transitional arrangements. The concern is, though, that once there is a location designation someone else could come along and say, for example, 'I'm the speaker of the house—ACT,' and someone else could say, 'Well, I'm the speaker of the house—Victoria.' A perfectly legitimate business name that you thought you owned could pop up not only on a state basis but also neighbourhood by neighbourhood. This is yet another concern.

A further concern is about home based businesses. We were assured that privacy would not be intruded upon. The problem is that, when you go to look for an address for the service of notices, your location can be identified and the privacy of your home based business compromised. This needs to be fixed. I call on the government to get on with it— (Time expired)