Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the member for Dunkley's motion on a national business names register. As much as I have much personal respect for the member for Dunkley, sadly this motion is off-key. He has hit a wrong note.

I am particularly proud of this national business names register, which has been operating successfully since 28 May 2012. I remember my days as an articled clerk working in a law firm. It was a small business actually, though it has grown to be a slightly bigger business. Much of the work of an articled clerk was spent running around inefficiently registering business names and working in state jurisdictions. Thankfully, the federal government has taken a step up and got rid of this red tape—this dreadful red tape—that is just a cost that small businesses do not know.

The national business names register in Australia became a reality one year ago today. Eight separate state and territory business name registers have made way for a single online register, which today holds more than 1.7 million names. This is bad news for articled clerks or for young lawyers. Obviously, they will not now be able to bill clients or businesses for much of their work. But it is a good thing for the Australian economy and a good thing for productivity.

Mr Deputy Chair Adams, since you and I were elected at the same time, you might recall that for the quarter when we were elected, productivity under the Howard government was running at zero—a big fat zero. They had run out of ideas, they had run out of anything except spending money like a drunken sailor. The Labor government has been much more efficient, has had much more of a national approach and has had much more of a 'what is good for business ' approach.

In the last 12 months ASIC has facilitated the online registration of over 260,000 new business names, made 120,000 updates to the register, done more than 14 million business name searches and issued close to 500,000 business name renewals. Can you imagine the work that articled clerks would have been doing but for the federal government's stepping up and making it a more efficient, unified nation?

The benefits of the national register include one stop convenience online to create, maintain and cancel a business name. Thirty per cent of registrations are done after business hours, making it more convenient for small business. There is only one registration needed Australia wide, from Perth to Coolangatta, instead of multiple registrations state by state. As a Queenslander living in Brisbane, it is not hard to be doing business over the Tweed. That is the case throughout Australia. It is cheaper, especially for customers with multiple business names. The national business names register has saved business $34 million in the last year alone. I am sure that the member for Dunkley touched on this often in his many speeches commending the Labor government for our contributions to small business! That $34 million in savings in the last year is through reduced fees to register or renew a name. Obviously, there is increased transparency as a result of more information being available online for free so that the general public can search to find out who stands behind a business name. Once upon a time in Queensland you would have engaged a lawyer to find out this information. Now you can find it online at a time that suits you.

Although the vast majority of businesses have utilised the benefits of the new online national register without any significant issues, despite this off key motion from the member for Dunkley, unfortunately some people have experienced difficulties such as accessing the website, contacting ASIC and renewing business names. That is because it is so popular. To address the congestion levels and the call wait times, ASIC recently implemented a range of strategies, including adding 150 new phone lines into the call centre. ASIC has now reached the maximum capacity of phone lines possible using our current Traralgon PABX. It has recruited additional staff in their client contact centre and registry operations team to respond to inquiries. Obviously, you respond to demand—that is what a good government does. These strategies have been largely successful in dealing with the larger than forecast call volumes, congestion levels at the exchange and call wait times. Obviously, it is so popular that too many people are trying to utilise. Bad for lawyers but good for the government in terms of improving productivity.

More recent data that I thought the member for Dunkley would be privy to indicates that almost no customers are having their calls blocked at the exchange due to congestion levels. Average call wait times have also decreased from almost 30 minutes in February to five minutes and 30 seconds last week. It is good to catch up, member for Dunkley. I am sure that you will be quick to appreciate the great work that the Labor government has done in improving productivity and making it easier for small business. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

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