The Australian Government has allocated $240 million over four years to establish Clean Business Australia a partnership with Australian business and industry for tackling climate change. Clean Business Australia will support a range of activities aimed at improving our energy and water efficiency and increasing sustainability, with a focus on productivity and innovation.

There are three elements to Clean Business Australia:

1. Climate Ready which supports small and medium sized Australian businesses to undertake research and development, proof of concept and early stage commercialisation projects, in order to develop new technologies and services responding to climate change.
2. Re-tooling for Climate Change which supports small and medium sized Australian manufacturers to reduce their environmental footprint, by improving the energy and/or water efficiency of one or more production processes.
3. Green Building Fund which supports owners of existing commercial office buildings to reduce their energy consumption and green house gas emissions. Support is also available for relevant industry organisations to develop industry capability in order to reduce emissions.

For each program, applicants compete for limited grant funds, based on the merit of their application.

Further information is available from Clean Business Australia .

Applications closing SOON!

Don’t forget that applications for the 2007-08 grant year close on 1 December 2008.  Austrade cannot, by law, accept late applications. Before submitting your application please check that you have filled out all relevant questions and schedules and attached relevant documents. Visit http://www.austrade.gov.au for details of Austrade’s application acceptance policy and required attachments to your application form.  

The federal government says the tax office will work with small business to minimise the impact of the global economic crisis, by introducing measures including individual tax management plans, $4 million for advisory centres and guarantees of on-time payments for businesses that deal with government departments.   The on-time payment guarantee will apply to contracts with the government up to $1 million - the federal government currently has more than 65,000 contracts under $1 million and spends about $30 billion on goods and services.

From December 1 payments will be made to businesses within 30 days otherwise the companies will have the right to charge penalty interest.

Mr Rudd said the tax office’s assistance would be based on individual circumstances.

He said the government also welcomed assurances by banks  about the availability of finance to small business and claimed that small business would also benefit from the extra cash given to consumers and training places announced under the $10.4 billion economic security strategy, as well as the first home owner grant boost.

As part of its $12 million commitment, the competitive grants program will provide between $5,000 and $15,000 to small businesses to help meet the set-up costs of family friendly working arrangements. The grants will support a range of initiatives, including:

• establishing rosters based on school terms and alternative core hours, for example, 10am to 3pm;
• developing workplace policies on unpaid leave for carers and workers who have children with disability or other special needs;
• providing facilities for employees with young children such as family rooms; and
• setting up workplace mentoring.

With up to $15 000 to allocate per small business, the Government is seeking innovative proposals that suit the individual needs of the business to promote a diverse range of family friendly initiatives.

ABN Board member Susan McGrath and Chairperson Suzi Dafnis will represent the ABN at the forum and we are interested to obtain input from members before 30 November.  Please contact policy@abn.org.au, or call Susan direct on 0439 908 108 if you would like to discuss. Alternatively you can comment on this post.

From 1 October, employers will need to adjust their payrolls to take into account a $21.66 per week increase in the standard Federal Minimum Wage. The increase takes effect from the first pay period on or after 1 October. From this date, the Federal Minimum Wage increases to $14.31 per hour or $543.78 per week. Read more. 

Read about how the ABN is discussing a range of public policy issues identified by you; our ABN community, with Government and Opposition politicians. Some issues you raised included: the need for more government support for women in small business, compliance and regulatory issues for small business and the national issue of skills shortages.  Download  herVoice’s Spring newsletter here!

The Productivity Commission’s draft report on Paid Parental Leave has now been released. The report may be downloaded in whole or in part from the inquiry website at: http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/parentalsupport

A detailed description of the draft model of paid parental leave that the Commission is proposing is contained in chapter 2, which also provides an overview of the reasoning behind each element in the model.

The ABN will be preparing a submission to the Commission – if you’d like to contribute, please email policy@abn.org.au with your comments, or call Susan McGrath on (07) 5592 3083 / 0439 908 108.  

The ACT Government has announced two new grant programs; one to assist with buiding an overseas brand and one to assist with commercialisation.  

TradeConnect (TCon)—Building Global OpportunitiesAn ACT Government grant program assisting ACT companies build global opportunities and enhance international opportunities.

InnovationConnect (ICon)—Accelerating Creative Ideas

An ACT Government grant program designed to provide creative innovators and entrepreneurs with limited funding support that will accelerate the progress of viable, creative ideas along the development and commercialisation pathway.

For further information on the above grants and assistance programs, visit the Business and Industry Development Website. Click here for details.

As part of our mission to keep politicians up to date with the issues and barriers that women in business face, today I had the great pleasure of meeting with Julie Bishop MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Employment, Business and Workplace Relations. 

She expressed a lot of interest in the ABN’s herVoice public policy and advocacy initiative and in the views of our members on changes in legislation such as the imminent change to unfair dismissal laws. 

We’ll keep you informed. In the meantime please table your concerns and issues on any issues that we can address with the government by emailing policy@abn.org.au.

At present, only private telephone numbers can be listed on the Do Not Call Register, which enables people to register to opt out of receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has just released a discussion paper that seeks comment on whether:

1. all telephone numbers should be allowed to be listed on the Register, and
2. fax numbers should be allowed to be listed on the Register.

To find out more, click here to access the discussion paper, which includes a questionnaire and discussion questions. 

The closing date for submissions is 12 September and they can be lodged online directly, or via email, post or fax.