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Small business subcontractors working on federal government contracts should now be receiving faster payments. Under the Payment Times Procurement Connected Policy, which took effect on October 1, big businesses with federal contracts must pay their subcontractors within 20 calendar days, provided:
The business servicing the contract has a turnover of more than $100 million
The contract is valued at more than $4 million
The subcontractor is invoicing for less than $1 million
If the big business takes longer than 20 days to make a payment, it must pay interest on the unpaid portion of the invoice. However, the subcontractor also has responsibilities – it must do a satisfactory job and must submit a proper invoice. For more information, visit the government’s FAQ page. Contact us to solve a business finance problem
The federal Treasury has released a report into the first six months of JobKeeper, which has found the program spared Australia from significant economic pain. JobKeeper, which was introduced in March 2020, supported 4 million Australians and 1 million businesses during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Between February and July 2020, the unemployment rate jumped from 5.1% to 7.4%, while the economy contracted 0.3% in the March quarter and 7.0% in the June quarter. “Without the government’s significant fiscal support, including JobKeeper, Treasury has estimated that the peak of the unemployment rate would have been at least 5 percentage points higher,” the report concluded. “Without the support provided by JobKeeper and other measures, many individuals could have faced extended periods of unemployment. And many businesses that recovered – even those that recovered quickly – may not have been able to do so.” Australia surpassed its pre-pandemic levels of GDP and employment by March 2021, which was “a better outcome than all major advanced economies.”
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the winners and losers from the widespread lockdowns that occurred in July and August. Accommodation & food services was the industry that suffered the biggest fall, with the industry experiencing a 16.6% month-on-month decline in turnover in July and then another 6.5% decline in August. Construction (-2.9% and -0.1%) and other services (-2.2% and -5.5%) were the only other industries to experience turnover declines in both July and August.
Conversely, the mining sector increased its turnover by 4.6% in July and 0.1% in August. Manufacturing (1.2% and 0.9%) and wholesale trade (0.6% and 1.0%) also expanded in both months.
There's been a massive increase in scam activity this year, according to the ACCC, Australia's consumer watchdog. Australians reported a record $211 million in losses to scams between 1 January and 19 September – an 89% increase on the same period last year. The average loss so far this year is about $11,000, compared to $7,000 the year before.
Phone scams are "exploding", according to the ACCC, with Australians filing 113,000 reports about this type of crime. There has also been a significant increase in losses to phishing scams, remote access scams and identity theft. The ACCC has this advice for consumers:
Don't click on links in messages that arrive unexpectedly
Don't provide personal or banking details to someone you don't know
To check if a text or email is genuine, call the organisation using details you find in an independent search (rather than the number provided)
Visit the Scamwatch website to report a scam or protect yourself against scams.
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