As the Federal Government moves its policy focus beyond COVID-19 economic survival, to economic revival, new laws in the form of the Payment Times Reporting Act 2020 have been passed which will attempt to improve the payment practices of large businesses in Australia. Large businesses will need to publicly report on their small business payment practices The Payment Times Reporting Act 2020 (Cth) (Cth) requires all large businesses with annual turnover greater than $100m, including …
“Never waste a good crisis” – Post-COVID-19 Federal Government reform agenda
The Prime Minister flagged yesterday (23 April 2020) that the Federal Government is actively reviewing policy options presented in a multitude of review papers from the past decade to identify, and implement, productivity enhancing reforms in order to ready Australia’s economy for a post-COVID recovery. You can read the transcript of that press conference here. What reforms might be involved? In yesterday’s press conference, the Prime Minister made clear that all previously mooted …
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COVID-19 National SME Commercial Leasing Code may see commercial landlords forced to fund profitable tenants
The National Cabinet of the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments in Australia, which has been regularly meeting to lead Australia through the COVID-19 pandemic response, recently released the ‘COVID-19 National SME Commercial Leasing Code’ (the Code). You can read the Code here. The Code states that it is designed to ‘impose a set of good faith leasing principles for application to commercial tenancies’ in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic and ‘to aid the management of …
COVID-19: Key business relief initiatives – summary table
As the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australian businesses continues to intensify, we recognise it can be difficult to remain across the many announced Federal and State Government COVID-19 business relief initiatives. To assist businesses in need right now, below is a summary of the key relief measures implemented by the Commonwealth and each State and Territory Government in Australia to date. For those businesses most affected by the pandemic, after implementation of …
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Coronavirus pandemic – a sensible legal response
The COVID-19 (or coronavirus) pandemic sweeping the world has caused massive disruption to economies and supply-chains. A pragmatic and practical response to the pandemic is necessary. We suggest the following steps be undertaken for your business now: Review regulatory requirements your business may be a risk of not meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic: many businesses will find themselves in the position of being unable to (or seriously hampered in) practically meeting …
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