The Charter for Small Business

One of the levers the NSW Government has to support small business, is to ensure our Departments and Agencies are thinking about the impacts of their initiatives, processes and policies on small business.

Introduced in February 2024, the Charter for Small Business is our government’s commitment for all NSW Departments and Agencies to guide their work with small businesses.

The Charter sets out six key principles to guide NSW Government Departments and Agencies engaging with small businesses. 

The Charter is implemented and mandated under a whole-of-government policy circular and commits all arms of government to better support small businesses.

To deliver on all aspects of the Charter, the Service NSW Customer Care and Business Bureau (Bureau) established a whole-of-Government Steering Committee with representation from key departments and regulators:

• Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW)
• Department of Communities and Justice
• Department of Education
• Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development NSW
• Environment Protection Authority
• Investment NSW (Premier’s Department)
• NSW Fair Trading
• NSW Health
• NSW Treasury
• The Cabinet Office
• Transport for NSW.

The Steering Committee meets quarterly and ensures oversight and input into the delivery of the Charter from across government.

To support accountability, there are specific actions for each Principle, with annual reporting being a key action.

This Progress Report details our achievements against each of the actions and also calls out challenges and next steps to ensure we continue to deliver for NSW small businesses.