Inquiry into Access of Small Business to Finance
Information about the Inquiry
On 03 February 2010 the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Economics Committee for inquiry and report.
This inquiry will investigate the current circumstances of issues surrounding access of small businesses to finance, including:
(a) the costs, terms and conditions of finance and changes to lending policies and practices affecting small businesses;
(b) the importance of reasonable access to funding to support small business expansion and the sector's contribution to employment growth and economic recovery;
(c) the state of competition in small business lending and the impact of the Government's banking guarantees;
(d) opportunities and obstacles to other forms of financing, for example, equity to support small business 'start ups', liquidity, growth and expansion;
(e) policies, practices and strategies to enhance access to small business finance that exist in other countries; and
(f) any other related matters.
Submissions should be received by 31 March 2010. The reporting date is 30 June 2010.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to economics.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3540 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5719 or by email to economics.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia