The planned destruction of self-employed small businesses

The Australian ‘Loophole Bill, currently before Parliament (Oct 2023) is a massive attack against the right of people to be their own boss.

If you’re like me and a ‘lover’ of free markets you’ll probably understand that the free-market ‘rubber hits the road’ with self-employed small business people. This is so because being self-employed means being personally liable, in real tangible ways for your actions.

In large businesses and government departments, individual responsibility is transferred ‘up the chain’ to the corporate or government entity!

Self-employed people (us) experience the market personally, in ways people working in corporates or government departments do not. The upside for self-employed people is that we enjoy self-control over our working lives whereas corporate/government people have the downside of being controlled by the ‘system’.

But there’s a philosophy that says that self-employment, being your own boss, is illegitimate. In Australia, this philosophy is now on full naked view in the federal government’s new industrial relations Bill, called the ‘Loophole Bill’.  

Photo by Randy Laybourne on Unsplash

Task: to block the Bill

The ‘anti-be your own boss’ forces have political power and they want to use it. There’s a narrow window to block this. The Bill will be up for debate/vote in the Australian Senate from February next year (2024).

If the coalition opposition (Liberals/Nationals) and six (6) of the seven (7) independent senators vote against the Bill it will fail. I’ve set myself the task of trying to make this happen (defeat the Bill). I’ve good communication happening with senators. A key to this advocacy exercise is to analyse the Bill to reveal what it does.

This Substack post is to give you an overview of the Bill. I’ll then release details analysis of the ‘bits’ of the Bill so you can understand the extent of the planned revolution that this Bill involves. There are global lessons to be learned.

Overview The ‘Loophole Bill’.  

The Bill proposes a transformation of key, core underpinnings of the Australian economy and society. It is perhaps the most radical change of its type seen since Federation.

The Bill:

• Is 284 pages long, with a 521-page Explanatory memorandum.

• Covers multiple agendas.

In summary:

The Bill seeks to make commercial transactions subject to industrial relations regulation.

It will do this in relation to commercial transactions undertaken by individuals in the earning of their income.

In practical terms, the Bill will outlaw:

• the bulk of self-employment;

• digital (gig) platform operations in Australia;

• self-employed people from earning their income through digital/gig platforms; and

• self-employed owner-drivers;

as well as:

• casual employment.

Further, the Bill will damage competition law in Australia, creating opportunity for a further concentration of economic power by big business.

In short, the Bill will make a huge percentage of Australian small businesses illegal. This is why describing the Bill as ‘radical’ is warranted and accurate.

The line-by-line analysis of key terms, sentences and structures of Bill shows how it achieves the above by:  

• Overriding the High Court’s determinations on ‘employee vs self-employment’.

• Breaching Australia’s International Labour Organisation obligations to protect the status of self-employment.

• Overriding Australia’s competition laws and limiting the power of Australia’s competition regulator (the ACCC).

• Defining the commercial contract as an employment contract.

• Regulating self-employed people as employees.

• Regulating digital (gig) platforms to remove their commercial basis.

• Regulating owner-drivers as employees.

More to come….