2015-09-14
Today the Senate supported (34 in favour, 25 against) the Australian Greens amendments to the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Bill 2015. The Bill seeks to introduce protection for unfair terms in standard form contracts for businesses with less than 20 employees.
Greens spokesperson for Small Business, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said, “The Greens moved amendments to increase the threshold for coverage from $100,000 to $300,000 for contracts up to 12 months long; and $300,000 to $1 million for contracts greater than 12 months.
“This is estimated to increase the coverage of the legislation from 80% of small businesses to 95% of small businesses.
“Importantly, the change will provide better protection for small businesses that might only deal with one or two major contractors, such as newsagents.
“If the Government, when the Bill returns to the House of Representatives, supports the amended Bill then it will be a big win for small business. Big business has been misusing their market power against small business for too long,” he concluded.
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