concerned for their privacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Home-based businesses can address privacy concerns by using their accountant\u2019s address but this will incur a fee.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to shadow small business minister Bruce Billson, the government promised to fix this issue but has failed to do so.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a meeting in September, the government undertook to fix the issue and to report back on their progress by the start of October but we\u2019ve heard nothing,\u201d Billson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a serious issue, which demonstrates that the government is asleep at the wheel and focused on saving face in the media for its poor management of the country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have a right to privacy and this issue should be of the upmost priority for the government, yet they seem to be taking the approach that it will hopefully blow over.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Bernie Ripoll, parliamentary secretary to the treasurer, says: \u201cWe set up a meeting for [Billson] with ASIC on business names because he wanted to raise a number of issues around that. This is one of the issues he raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst we\u2019re sympathetic to businesspeople who are caught in this situation, ASIC has valid policies and legal reasons for why people have to produce a physical address, such as serving papers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can go through an agent to collect their mail and so forth instead of producing their home address. We acknowledge in some cases there might be a fee involved with that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“ASIC is looking into this. There was never any understanding we would fix this by October.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“And it\u2019s going to be impossible anyway, even if we wanted to, because the fact is it would require changes to legislation and these things always take time.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But Peter Strong, executive director of the Council of Small Business of Australia, says Billson is \u201cprobably right to say nothing\u2019s been done\u201d, agreeing it is a serious issue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is that ASIC are aware of the issue and looking at various mechanisms to fix it but they have to move much more quickly,\u201d Strong says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201c[One of the main issues is] you have to have a place to serve papers \u2013 this is a problem for ASIC.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the solutions would be people saying, \u2018No, you can\u2019t have my address\u2019 but if they\u2019re involved in serving papers then people can ask for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Billson and Strong\u2019s comments come after ASIC released an update of the register, providing a snapshot of the service for the fortnight of November 19 to December 2.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During this period, 11,117 business name registration applications were received, and 8,124 business names were fully registered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since the register went live back in May, more than 148,000 business name registration applications have been received, and 129,689 business names have been fully registered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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