ob体育 has released its Corporate Plan for 2018-19 to 2021-22 and small business continues to be an important stakeholder for ob体育, reflected in the plan鈥檚 action items for 2018-19.
ob体育 Commissioner John Price said, 鈥楢s Australia鈥檚 regulator for companies, financial markets and providers of financial services and consumer credit, ob体育 works to help small business succeed as a key driver of the Australian economy. Small businesses employ half of Australia鈥檚 workforce and make up one-fifth of Australia鈥檚 gross domestic product so it鈥檚 vital that ob体育 helps create an environment that develops the small business sector.鈥�
In the financial year ahead, ob体育 will focus on poor culture and professionalism in financial services and credit, particularly in the provision of consumer credit and financial advice, the fair treatment of small business, and the use of consumer data by firms (including data governance).
ob体育 will continue to review lenders鈥� compliance with small business protections in unfair contract terms legislation and offer broader support to small business by providing information, tools and resources. ob体育鈥檚 First Business online modules and app are available to download from the , and there is also a host of information contained on the small business hub on ob体育鈥檚 website.
In addition to ensuring companies comply with their obligations to small business, ob体育 will be focussing on compliance by small business, in particular, illegal phoenix behaviour, non-compliance with financial reporting obligations and director misconduct.
ob体育 launched its Small Business Strategy 2017-2020 in August last year and聽 today reports on our progress during 2017-18, and our commitment to assisting, engaging and helping to protect small businesses. Key highlights for 2017-18 include:
- More than 366,000 new business names and 244,000 new companies were registered, and over 122聽million searches of ob体育鈥檚 registers were conducted
- ob体育聽responded to over 692,000 enquiries through its various communication channels, and the small business hub on ob体育鈥檚 website was viewed over聽66,000 times
- ob体育聽successfully prosecuted 382 entities/individuals for 734 offences relating聽to failure to keep books and records, which is often an indicator of聽illegal phoenix activity.
For more information on the work ob体育 is doing with and for small business, see Report REP 571 ob体育 and small business or view the .
For more information on the First Business App, see 鈥�17-033MR ob体育 launches First Business App to help young people starting a small business鈥�.