South Australia will shortly have a Small Business Commissioner to advocate on behalf of small business following the passage of legislation through State Parliament this week.

Long standing franchise law reform, small business and farming advocate local State Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo said South Australia will become the safest place in Australia for small business to set up shop.

 The Bill, with a minor amendment moved by the Family First Party, passed the through the State Parliament late on Thursday despite been opposed by the Liberal Party. 

While the Bill was passed with the support of the minor parties and independents, it was opposed in both houses of parliament by the Liberal Opposition despite it enjoying support from numerous industry groups including the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, Independent Contractor’s Australia, The South Australian Farmers Federation, The Business Development Council and Business SA.

Mr Piccolo said in the end the Liberal Party stood alone alongside the Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) in the business sector in opposing the Bill.

“The behaviour of the FCA and the Liberal Party during the debate has been nothing short of disgraceful, “Mr Piccolo said.

“Despite the pair [the FCA and the Liberal Party] launching a massive scare campaign laced with misinformation their attempts to derail the Bill in the end failed.”

“The Liberals have sold out. They have caved in to big business. They were trying to deny small business justice.”

“The local small business community, including farmers have every right to know while local Liberals John Dawkins MLC and Ivan Venning did not support the measure.”

The Bill provides for the creation of a Small Business Commissioner, as well as the legislative framework for prescribing Mandatory Codes of Conduct under the South Australian Fair Trading Act.

Mr Piccolo said the Bill also provides for civil monetary penalties for breaches of prescribed codes of conduct under the Fair Trading Act and for civil expiation penalties (i.e. an infringement notices or "on the spot fines").

“Civil expiation notices provide a quick and easy way for the Commissioner to impose a penalty without having to go to court (as the Commissioner would need to in relation to civil monetary penalties),” said Mr Piccolo.

Following consultation with relevant industry groups, the Minister will have the ability to prescribe mandatory codes of conduct under the Fair Trading Act which could include a statutory duty of good faith as well as other standards of conduct in franchising as well as other sectors such as farming and retail leasing.

Mr Piccolo said this Bill will provide mum and dad business owners with a quick and fair process to protect themselves from predatory behaviour from other businesses,” Mr Piccolo stated.

“Quite simply, South Australia will be the safest place in Australia for small business to set up shop.”

“Mum and Dad business owners work incredibly long hours and often invest all their savings in setting up new businesses only to be brought down by rogue franchisors.”

“The Bill is very fair as it expects all parties to a business to business transaction to act in good faith and not just franchisors.”

“The Bill and subsequent codes will go some way towards correcting the current huge power imbalance between a franchisor and franchisee.”

The proposed mandatory codes of conduct will not only help franchisees but other small business like farmers.

Mr Piccolo said that concerns expressed about the management of the 2010/11 grain harvest, when combined with the increasing number of disputes between farmers and multinational farm machinery companies meant that the time was right for new laws to provide farmers with some defence against predatory behaviour by big business.

“In reality farmers are small businesses and are often subject to the same predatory behaviour from the big end of town like every other small business, “Mr Piccolo said.

“The Parliamentary Farm Machinery inquiry heard case after case of how farmers were screwed over by big business when it came to warranties and other business transactions.”

Mr Piccolo said the Small Business Commissioner Bill has its origins in a SA State Parliament Economic and Finance Committee Report that found serious deficiencies in the current Federal Franchise Code of Conduct.