SMALL business owners are are not happy with the Government’s recent decision to refuse their applications for 30-day accounts with the ACT’s rubbish tips, the Opposition says.

Mr Wall says the Government sometimes takes months to pay its own accounts with local traders, and will today move a motion in the Legislative Assembly calling on the Government to once again allow 30-day terms for rubbish dump fees.

“Small businesses are required to take financial risk when providing services to Government, sometimes waiting months for payment,” Mr Wall says. “Yet local businesses must pay cash up front, simply because the Government cannot manage its own accounts.”

Mr Wall says Minister for Territory and Municipal Services Shane Rattenbury advised that new applications for accounts would no longer be available to small business operators, in reply to a recent query about a credit application.

“The government continues to claim that it is improving the way it works with small business,” he says. “However, this is yet another example of how the current government continues to add complexity and cost to the way it interacts with local businesses.

“If the ACT Government is serious about reducing red tape and improving the way they deal with businesses, particularly small businesses, they will agree to the motion today and reinstate a 30 day account service at their waste management facilities.”