Paymaster role for parental leave peeves small business owners

Executive officer of the Tasmanian Small Business Council, Robert Mallett has accused the Federal Government of being well out of touch with the small business sector.

“Paid parental leave is a fact of life in most of the western world and small business owners are happy to see it introduced in Australia. However, the move by the Government to make the business owners responsible for making the parental payments shows little or no real understanding of the culture of small businesses” he said in Hobart this week.

“The reasoning behind the decision to make the small business the paymaster and not process payments through Centrelink just doesn’t hold water. This will supposedly help the bond between the employer and the employee by extending the paymaster function but in reality it will just cause resentment and confusion”, he said.

“Small business owners know their staff very well and don’t need this contrived mechanism to ensure that their pregnant staff are more connected with the business.

“It is the owner and their family who will visit the mother and baby in hospital; it is the owner and their family who will provide presents for them and it is the owner and their family who will watch their staff members family grow up. Employees in small businesses are not numbers they are people yet the Government can’t seem to grasp this very basic concept,” he said.

Chair of the TSBC, Geoff Fader told the Innovation Forum in Canberra : “This is exactly a case where a differential procedure for small business should be introduced but government policy remains steadfast.

“Centrelink is equipped to handle these payments and indeed has to approve them, but no, the responsible department has prepared a 24-page book on the administrative procedure required. There will be countless mistakes and unintended fraud. The politicians will bask in the headlines that show some small business operator that could not cope with the administration has been sent to jail.”

Mr Mallett said that “it was particularly disappointing that the Senate in passing this bill didn’t recognise the risks and unnecessary compliance in making the business pay and passed the bill without amendment”