Small businesses under pressure because they have been strung out as far as 120 days by big business before being paid, have won some relief from the big business lobby today.
The Business Council of Australia has set up an Australian Supplier Payment Code under which its signatories agree to pay their suppliers within 30 days.
The big companies are named here.
They are public and the initiative is to be applauded. Faster payment times will not only keep small business – the largest employer sector in the country – alive, it will speed up the movement of money across the whole economy.
The move by the BCA has arisen from the Inquiry by the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman’s into Payment Times and Practices.
The inquiry followed revelations here that the likes of multinational companies Mars, Kellogg’s and Fonterra had pushed payments times for suppliers out from 90 days to 120 days.
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Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.