THE Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell said Labor’s alternative Budget plan to make childcare cheaper, would deliver essential support to women in small business.

Ms Carnell's comments follow Labor Leader Anthony Albanese’s Budget reply speech, during which he pledged $6.2 billion over three years to increase rebates on childcare fees for all families.

“About 38 percent of small businesses are owned and operated by women, many of whom have been hit hard by the COVID crisis and rely on childcare as they work to get their businesses back up and running again,” Ms Carnell said.

“Right now childcare is unaffordable for many women in small businesses, particularly those who have businesses that have been severely impacted by COVID restrictions.

“We know this recession has had a disproportionate impact on women and with childcare fees remaining unaffordable, mothers – more often than not – need to spend more time at home to look after their kids. It’s bad for small business and even worse for the economy.

“There is an overwhelming economic case for affordable childcare, with many credible economists arguing it would boost the participation rate and deliver significant productivity gains.

“Crucially, affordable childcare would allow more women to work on growing their businesses – an important contribution to Australia’s economic recovery.”

www.asbfeo.gov.au

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THE IMPACT of natural disasters and COVID-19 in 2020 has affected lives all over Australia, and now the Parliament’s Electoral Matters Committee has launched an inquiry into the future conduct of elections in emergency situations.

Committee Chair Senator James McGrath said this year’s COVID-19 pandemic in particular had underscored that emergency situations can and do arise during election periods.

"From health pandemics to natural disasters, international conflict or civil unrest, we want to find out whether our electoral law and the Australian Electoral Commission are as prepared as possible for unusual events or disruptions in the future," Senator McGrath said.

"We have a healthy and secure electoral system but we need to make sure that in all scenarios barriers are identified early and issues worked through before they are needed so that everyone can have their say."

The Committee would particularly like to hear from constitutional experts; emergency management services; cyber-threat experts; Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and agencies; disability and inclusion advocates; Indigenous peak bodies and voters; and electoral commissions.

"We’ve seen from the Eden-Monaro by-election, as well as elections in Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, that measures are already being put in place to deal with COVID-19," Senator McGrath said.

"I’m very interested in taking the lessons learned from these examples, as well as next month’s state election in Queensland, and seeing how they might apply on a federal level."

As part of the inquiry, the Committee will examine the short and long term impacts of unexpected, rapidly developing external events that could substantially interrupt normal voting, election administration or campaigning, including contingency plans for an increased demand in alternative voting options.

The Committee invites written submissions addressing any or all of the terms of reference. Information on how to make a submission may be found at the following link. Submissions are requested by November 13, 2020.

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THE parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge will hold three public hearings next week where it will hear from witnesses including the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation (PKKP), Rio Tinto, and the Western Australian (WA) Government.

In its submission, the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation were critical that Rio Tinto had not protected the gorge, despite the PKKP, as well as anthropologists and archaeologists, providing Rio with information on the significance of the Juukan rockshelters.

Following their previous appearance at the inquiry, Rio Tinto has provided additional information to the Committee suggesting that it had held discussions with the PKKP prior to the destruction of the rockshelters and that the significance of the site was well understood by both sides at the time contracts were signed.

The WA Government has also provided additional information to the inquiry, particularly around features of its draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill and the role of its proposed Local Aboriginal Heritage Services.

Northern Australia Committee Chair Warren Entsch said the upcoming hearings would be a critical juncture in terms of the Committee’s work.

“We are looking forward to hearing from the PKKP to get their perspective on how the tragedy unfolded and what impact it has had on their community," Mr Entsch said.

“One of the key objectives of this inquiry is to look at what needs to change to ensure that Indigenous heritage is better protected in the future. Part of that is really digging into what went wrong at Rio and how it allowed this to happen.

"The other part is about strengthening legislative protection, and so we look forward to hearing what the WA Government is doing to ensure that we never have another situation like the destruction that occurred at the Juukan Gorge," Mr Entsch said.

Public hearing details

Date: Monday, 12 October 2020
Time: 12pm to 3pm AEDT
Location: By videoconference/teleconference

Date: Tuesday 13 October 2020
Time: 11am to 4pm AEDT
Location: by videoconference/ teleconference

Date: Friday 16 October 2020
Time 12pm to 3pm AEDT
Location: by videoconference/teleconference

The hearings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.  Programs are available on the Committee’s website.

Further details of the inquiry, including terms of reference, can be found on the Committee’s website.

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THE Federal Budget bringing forward Stage 2 of the legislated tax cuts and backdating them to July 1, 2020 is a welcomed boost for the economy and small business says the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA).

IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway said the economic benefits of the retrospective component, however, may not translate into ringing cash register sales as soon as Treasury expected.

“The unfortunate news about the retrospective nature of these tax cuts is that they may not be realised by some until the end of the calendar year, which reduces the immediate impact on the economy,” Mr Conway said.

“The ATO is unable to retrospectively deal with the PAYG overpaid for the first quarter of the financial year.  Therefore, many salary and wage earners may not get the ‘backpay’ for the months of July, August and September as instantly as first thought.

“If you take someone who was going to receive the maximum benefit of $2,564, one quarter of this amount ie $641 has already accrued and will not be immediately available to stimulate the economy as intended.

“The ATO has communicated that it will not be adjusting withholding tables to pick up the overpayments.  Doing so could create the scenario where taxpayers find themselves underpaying tax during the year and having a tax debt to deal with when they lodge their annual return. It could potentially lead to another robo-debt situation," he said.

“In any other given year, with a Budget in May, this issue would have been mitigated as the lag time between the end of the financial year and changes to tax tables would have been quite short. In addition, tax table changes are normally adjusted prospectively to start from 1 July of the next financial year, so we are dealing with uncharted waters. 

“Treasury’s ideal scenario is that this money would be out in the economy as soon as possible and being spent so that the sugar hit delivered by the tax cuts was more immediate.  

“We had hoped that single touch payroll may have allowed for the flexibility to deliver the desired outcome. However, this does not seem to be the case," Mr Conway said.

“However, all is not lost. Taxpayers earning income outside of wages and salaries can immediately take advantage of Stage 2 tax cuts by varying down their quarterly instalment in the September BAS which is due on October 28, 2020.  Small business entrepreneurs are mostly unincorporated entities and therefore are also beneficiaries of the Stage 2 tax cuts.

“We are encouraging all our members to vary down PAYG to take advantage of this initiative,” Mr Conway said.

About the Institute of Public Accountants

The IPA, formed in 1923, is one of Australia’s three legally recognised professional accounting bodies. In late 2014, the IPA acquired the Institute of Financial Accountants in the UK and formed the IPA Group, with more than 38,000 members and students in over 80 countries. The IPA Group is the largest SME focused accountancy organisation in the world. The IPA is a member of the International Federation of Accountants, the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board and the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants

www.publicaccountants.org.au

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