Bill
Payment Times Reporting Bill 2020
passed, as at 2020-10-14. Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2020-05-13
- second reading — 2020-05-13
- second reading — 2020-06-11
- second reading — 2020-06-11
- third reading — 2020-06-11
- introduced — 2020-06-12
- second reading — 2020-06-12
- second reading — 2020-09-01
- second reading — 2020-09-03
- second reading — 2020-09-03
- committee — 2020-09-03
- third reading — 2020-09-03
- other — 2020-10-06
- passed — 2020-10-06
- royal assent — 2020-10-14
Divisions
- The majority voted in favour of keeping unchanged the usual [second reading motion](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/bills-and-laws/making-a-law-in-the-australian-parliament/), which is "*that the bill be read a second time*" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). This question was put after Gorton MP [Brendan O'Connor](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/gorton/brendan_o'connor) (Labor) moved an amendment that would have removed all the words after 'that' and replaced them with other words (see below). ### Amendment text > *That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:* > > *"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House expresses concerns over deficiencies in the bill, including the:* > > *(1) lack of certainty that the measure will lower payment times;* > > *(2) light treatment of supply chain financing; and* > > *(3) ability for businesses to hide extremely long payment times to small businesses".* — 2020-06-11, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 40, noes 27
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2020-09-03.89.1) moved by South Australia Senator [Don Farrell](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/don_farrell) (Labor), which means they failed. Senator Farrell [explained that](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2020-09-03.89.1): > *Labor believes that complementary back-up measures are necessary to ensure the Payment Times Reporting Scheme improves general payment times to small business. Our amendments would introduce a fail-safe mechanism. That fail-safe mechanism means that over the next few years, if the government's scheme does not broadly improve payment times to small businesses to 30 days or less, the mechanism is triggered.* Read more about the proposed Payment Times Reporting Scheme in the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1920a/20bd101). — 2020-09-03, Senate: negative, ayes 23, noes 24
- The majority voted in favour of *disagreeing* with [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2020-10-06.12.1) introduced by MP for Burt [Matt Keogh](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/burt/matt_keogh), which means they failed. Mr Keogh [explained](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2020-10-06.12.1) that his amendments: > *... seek to amend the amendments passed by the Senate, to include Labor's fail-safe mechanism. For the benefit of the House, Labor believes that this complementary backup measure is necessary to ensure the Payment Times Reporting Scheme improves general payment times for small business. Our amendment would introduce a fail-safe mechanism. This means that over the next few years, if the government scheme does not broadly improve payment times to small businesses to 30 days or less, then the mechanism will be triggered. The fail-safe mechanism can be triggered after three years of the scheme operating and will allow the regulator to force large businesses not paying small businesses on time to pay them within 30 days or face hefty fines. This will provide an incentive for reporting entities to collectively improve their payment practices or run the risk of more stringent regulation.* > > *The fail-safe mechanism has the following features. The regulator will be required to report to the minister after each reporting period, with the reports being tabled in both houses of parliament. This will start after the first three reporting periods of the scheme—18 months after the commencement. The payment time fail-safe mechanism is triggered if, after the first six reporting periods of the scheme, the representative time to pay small business reported by all reporting entities is more than 30 days. The regulator must report this fact to the minister. Once the payment time fail-safe mechanism has been triggered, the regulator must declare any reporting entity that had a median payment time for small business invoices — 2020-10-06, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 42, noes 33
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2020-05-13.
This bill is part of a package that would create a Payment Times Reporting Scheme requiring businesses and government enterprises with over $100 million in annual total income to disclose their payment terms and practices for small business suppliers.
The scheme would set up a Payment Times Reporting Regulator to collect and publish reports every six months, and the accompanying bill would let the Commissioner of Taxation share certain tax data with that regulator.
A small business would be defined as one with an annual turnover under $10 million, and a tool would help large businesses identify which of their suppliers are small.
- Requires large entities to submit reports on their small business payment practices every six months.
- Creates a Regulator to publish reports on a public register and enforce compliance.
- Allows the Taxation Commissioner to disclose tax information to the Regulator.
- Establishes a tool to help identify small business suppliers.
- Exempts charities and not-for-profits from reporting.
- Provides an 18-month penalty-free transition period after the scheme starts.
Large businesses and government enterprises with over $100 million annual total income, and their small business suppliers.
Sources
em
em supp
billhome
frl act