October 2012
Again, as usual, ICA has been very active during the year, lobbying on issues for self-employed small business people and achieving success in a number of areas.
Organisational issues
9 Board meetings were held during the year
ICA’s new website (www.independentcontractors.net.au) has been a major exercise, taking up considerable financial resources and time and taking some 9 months from inception to final completion. We are most pleased with the final result, with a more user-friendly website that is clearer and easier to access. Website traffic has been consistent at around 3,000 unique viewers a month.
Services: ICA’s purpose is to lobby for improved environments for independent contractors (self-employed people) We have, however, developed or are developing several services products for members. These include:
- Contract templates
- Insurance packages (developing)
- Car purchases packages (developing)
Events
Major events in which ICA was involved during the year included:
- Thailand Regional Small Business Conference 2011
- Wellington International small business conference 2012
- National Small Business Summit Melbourne 2012
Consultation committees
ICA has representation on some key consultative committees including:
- ATO small and micro business committee
- ATO disputes management consultative committee
- NSW procurement review consultative committee
- Liaison activities with small business commissioners from WA, Vic, NSW, SA
Industry-specific discussions
ICA is actively working with groups and individuals in specific industry areas, developing programmes where possible to assist resolving issues in each area. These include liaison with:
- Virtual Assistants in Australia and internationally;
- Meetings with freelance journalists who these days make up more than 70% of journalists in Australia;
- Franchise Council of Australia on fair contract and small business commissioners;
- Owner Drivers. ICA has this year reactivated Owner Drivers Australia;
- Construction industry: particularly discussions around the code of conduct in Victoria; and
- Small business finance issues, including attendance at a Reserve Bank discussions.
Submissions and lobbying
ICA’s core activity is lobbying. This year that has included:
- Small Business Commissioner Bill NSW
- Small Business reforms in Victoria
- South Australia on OHS legislation
- Victoria on OHS legislation
- Western Australia on small business commissioners, fair contracts, procurement for small business people
- Workers’ compensation reform New South Wales
- Discussions with the Queensland government on small business dispute resolution, workers’ compensation reform, and more
- Fair contracts discussions with several large businesses
- Frequent discussions with ALP and Coalition at state and federal levels
International
ICA is actively networking with organizations internationally. This has included:
- Contractor UK
and
- The peak Australian (SEAANZ) and international (ICSB) academic organizations involved in small business issues.
ICA is developing a comparative measuring tool that assesses the impact of government regulations on the ability of small business people to be entrepreneurial, the GEE Index.