Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition is launching a bold, pro-small-business policy agenda centered on a landmark Small Business Act, set to be announced Wednesday by Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson at Canberra’s National Press Club. The proposal, a core pillar of the Coalition’s push to refocus on grassroots economic priorities, aims to resolve longstanding fragmented regulations and amplifies the voices of small and independent business owners that opposition leaders argue have been sidelined by the current Labor government.
At the heart of the policy is the creation of a single, standardized legal definition of a small business across all Commonwealth legislation, replacing the inconsistent, overlapping definitions that currently create unnecessary administrative burden for operators. The Act also mandates two key new protections: a formal “right to be paid”, which will enshrine legal maximum payment terms for small businesses working with both government agencies and large corporate clients, addressing the pervasive problem of late payments that cripples cash flow for thousands of small operations nationwide.
Additional provisions embedded in the proposed legislation require that every new federal regulation be accompanied by a dedicated small business regulatory impact statement, creating a formal feedback pathway for small business owners to contribute to policy design before it becomes law. This consultation requirement will extend to all major federal regulators, including the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australian Taxation Office, and Fair Work Commission, ensuring small business perspectives are incorporated into key regulatory and monetary decisions that impact their operations. The policy also expands mandatory government procurement quotas, requiring a larger share of federal government contracts to be awarded exclusively to small businesses.
Wilson will use his address to accuse the Albanese-led Labor government of waging an implicit war on Australia’s entrepreneurs and self-starting small business owners, a critique that comes amid ongoing pushback from small business groups over recent changes to capital gains tax discounts. In prepared remarks, Wilson will emphasize that the Coalition is positioning itself as the definitive political ally for small and independent operators, noting that for decades, Australian economic regulation has been shaped by deep-pocketed lobbyists with access to the highest levels of government, while small business voices were locked out of the process.
“For too long Australia’s laws have been designed around the influence of those that can hire lobbyists to walk the Prime Minister’s corridor,” Wilson will say. “In generations past, young Australians got ahead by buying property. Young Australians know that to get ahead you need to invest, and build a small business, side hustle, equity or start-up.”
Wilson will also frame the policy as a response to a fundamentally outdated economic framework, arguing that 12 months of widespread conversations with small business operators across the country have convinced him incremental, marginal tweaks to Australia’s 20th-century regulatory system are no longer enough to solve small business struggles.
The new Small Business Act announcement builds on earlier pro-small-business commitments the Coalition unveiled earlier this month in Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech. Those prior pledges include an instant $50,000 asset write-off for businesses with annual turnover below $1 million, and a policy to index the two lowest personal income tax brackets to inflation to curb bracket creep.
Ahead of Wilson’s National Press Club address, Taylor doubled down on the Coalition’s critique, arguing the current Albanese government is ideologically opposed to small business and actively seeks to replace independent operations with expanded big government. “What they’re planning to do now is going to do exactly that, replace small business with big government,” Taylor said. “Only this government could be so arrogant and so could so badly misunderstand this country as to think that that’s a good idea.”