Principle 3: Listen and respond to red tape and other pain points

Action 1: Improve coordination and response to red tape and other pain points

Building collaborative and productive relationships across NSW Government has been at the heart of the Bureau’s work with NSW Fair Trading, the NSW Food Authority, and other key regulators, to understand and streamline, where possible, small business challenges with regulation, compliance, audits and general business obligations.

One focus industry for government is the 17,000 motor vehicle repairers in NSW. The Bureau worked with the industry, the Complaints, Compliance and Enforcement Program (Digital NSW), and NSW Fair Trading to develop an online self-check compliance tool. The Check your compliance readiness tool, available on the Service NSW website, allows a repairer to anonymously check if their business follows current regulations, highlights improvements the business can make, and supports a business to be ready for NSW Fair Trading inspections. Since going live in July 2024, the tool has seen over 12,000 completed questionnaires, building compliance awareness and understanding across the industry.

Through cross-government and industry collaboration, the NSW Government has been delivering Vibrancy Reforms to revitalise the State's night-time economy by reducing regulatory barriers and creating an environment for live entertainment, hospitality, and creative sectors to flourish. The reforms address restrictive planning, licensing and noise regulatory frameworks that are duplicative, outdated and complex, and that have reduced the number, viability and growth of entertainment and performance spaces. The reforms, enacted in December 2023 and in July and October of 2024, support businesses, their workforce, and broader community through legislative changes and strategic initiatives. They also expand incentives for night-time leisure and entertainment activities.

Tranche 1 of these Vibrancy Reforms included a permanent 80% licensing fee reduction and extended trading for licensed venues offering regular live entertainment. These incentives positively influenced the night-time economy, growing live entertainment and hospitality sectors with a substantial increase in registered live music and performance venues. The number of new licensed live music and performance venues approved increased significantly growing from 60 venues in 2023 to 200 in 2024, a 233% rise compared to 2023, bringing the total number of approved venues to 452 as of 31 December 2024.⁵

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In the year to September 2024, the number of core night-time economy businesses in NSW, including small businesses, grew by 858, an increase of 1.6% year on year.⁶ Following the reforms, night-time business activity has increased. In October 2024, the DCS Business Sentiment Survey reported that 89% of hospitality and arts/culture businesses traded into the evening after 6pm (up 22% from October 2023).⁷

Digitisation of processes can reduce the time it takes for a small business to navigate government services. This can be seen in the benefits for businesses from the DCS platform Licence NSW, which provides one place for businesses to apply for, renew and maintain licenses in NSW. Business owners are using Licence Manager, which is integrated with Licence NSW, to track and manage with more than 34,500 active licences across three industries. Using the business owner’s digital Business Profile, owners can keep track of their own and their employee’s licences so the business is always compliant, saving time and increasing the ease of doing business.

Digital trade licences make it easier for tradespeople to prove their certification. In 2023–24, over 130,000 digital trade licences were downloaded onto customers’ phones. Through digitisation of previously manual transactions, more than 400,000 visits to Service NSW Centres were avoided and the equivalent of 350,000 days were contributed back to the NSW economy from time savings.

DCCEEW has also been investing in digitisation of processes, including through collaboration with Water NSW on the Water Licensing Improvement Program.

Action 2: Remove legacy red-tape requirements through legislative reform

The NSW Government constantly tidies the statute book to remove unnecessary and redundant compliance provisions. The Statute Law Revision program provides a regular opportunity to amend legislation across Government portfolios to ensure it is contemporary and fit for purpose. Individual portfolios also support forward Bills to remove red-tape.

For example, in response to feedback from businesses and consumers, in 2024, NSW Fair Trading supported the Better Regulation, Fair Trading and Other Legislation Amendment Bill which amended 22 principal Acts, one amendment Act and seven regulations across the Better Regulation, Fair Trading and Gaming and Racing portfolios. The Bill aimed to: modernise outdated provisions; create laws that stay relevant in a digital world; ensure legislation is harmonised and consistent across the portfolio; clarify legal requirements; and reduce unnecessary regulatory burden and improve customer outcomes.

At a whole-of-government level, NSW Treasury has commenced a review of the Guide to Better Regulation to inform how government develops regulatory approaches. Small businesses can be particularly impacted by regulation that is not informed by or designed to support smaller operations. This review is working to improve regulatory practice and outcomes for small businesses and industry. This includes through strengthening approaches to better understand the cost, benefits and impacts of regulation on small businesses and other key groups.

Alongside this work, the Small Business Commission undertook consultation with small businesses on red-tape and released a report that identified the need to improve consultation with industry and businesses on new legislation or changes to existing regulation.  

The NSW Government has also recommitted to the National Competition Policy with two new intergovernmental agreements that deliver a strong focus on making it easier for businesses to enter new markets and to adopt new technologies. Under the agreements, NSW will reduce the impact of government policies on competition to support revitalisation across the NSW business landscape.

The NSW Retail Leases Act 1994 governs the leasing arrangement for many small businesses who are tenants. In 2023, the Small Business Commissioner reported on its review of the Act. DCS is leading work to support the NSW Government’s response to the report, including reform options to achieve greater clarity in the Act to prevent disputes, improve pre-lease processes and improve safeguards to benefit both lessors and lessees.

Action 3: Provide financial support to help ease the cost of doing business

In 2023-24, the NSW Government through Investment NSW, supported 60 startups and innovative small businesses through the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Ventures Program, providing grants of $25,000 to $50,000 to develop and commercialise highly innovative products and processes. Recipients include companies developing robotic welding technology, stroke rehabilitation solutions through virtual reality and new utility scale batteries.

The food and beverage manufacturing sector across NSW had an annual turnover of $42.5 billion in 2022-2023 and employed more than 66,000 people as of May 2024. The NSW Government continues to boost economic development for regional NSW through a low interest loans pilot program targeting regionally based food and beverage manufacturers.

The pilot program, delivered as part of the NSW Government’s Regional Development Trust, and administered by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, is aimed at boosting productivity by supporting small and medium enterprises to adopt advanced manufacturing capabilities.

Under the $5 million pilot program, loans of between $100,000 and $1 million were available to eligible applicants. Loans could be used for projects such as installing automated production lines, upgrading bottling lines, or buying equipment that will enable products to be exported more efficiently. Interest is charged monthly at a fixed rate of 2.5 percent for the life of the loan. Loan repayments are interest only for the first two years, with the maximum loan term being seven years. A total of seven low interest loans have been approved under the program for businesses in Dubbo, Byron Bay, Wagga Wagga, Wauchope, Bathurst, the Central Coast and Southern Highlands.

Rebates and voucher schemes continue to be delivered by Service NSW and the Bureau, providing support and opportunity to small businesses:

• In collaboration with Transport, the Toll Relief Rebate Scheme delivered $4 million in value to 4,129 customers, including NSW businesses, in 2023-24 financial year
• More than 215,000 small businesses were provided with around approximately $115 million in energy bill relief by DCCEEW in 2023 – 24
• The Bureau has also been instrumental in building awareness of SafeWork NSW’s small business rebate program which saw 6,530 rebates approved in 2023-24.⁸
   

The Grants Administration Guide, developed by The Cabinet Office in consultation with a cross-agency community of practice, ensures a consistent approach to the delivery of government grants to the community, including small businesses. The Guide provides an overview of the grants administration process, the overarching principles that apply to all NSW Government grants, and mandatory requirements that all Government Departments, Agencies and related entities must comply with when creating and administering grants. This work has helped streamline expectations and processes for small businesses when responding to government grant opportunities.

Action 4: Deliver faster payments to small businesses

NSW Government is committed to delivering faster payments to small businesses selling their goods and services to government. NSW Treasury released an updated Faster Payments Terms Policy in April 2025. Under the Policy, Government Agencies must pay small businesses that are registered on buy NSW within 5 business days upon receipt of a correctly rendered invoice. Over 51,000 small businesses are now registered on buy NSW.

The updates to the policy are a result of an NSW Treasury review completed in 2023, which made 24 recommendations to improve outcomes for small business suppliers to the NSW Government.

The updated policy expands the scope to include all NSW Government Sector Finance Act 2018 Agencies, to ensure that all small businesses selling to Government will benefit from the accelerated payment terms. This expansion brings at least 22 Agencies and over 2,000 schools under the policy.

The 5-day payment terms policy sets NSW apart as a leader across Australia in supporting small businesses.

In the financial year 2023-24, over 70% of eligible small businesses invoices sent to government departments were paid within 5 business days. NSW Treasury will continue to work with NSW Government Agencies to improve the timeliness and accuracy of compliance reporting.

References

⁵Liquor & Gaming internal data February 2025

⁶NSW Night-time Economy Insights September Quarter, September 2023, https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/noindex/2025-01/nsw-night-time-economy-insights-september-quarter-2024.pdf

⁷Department of Customer Service, October 2024

⁸Department of Customer Service Annual Report 2023-2024, December 2024 https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/noindex/2024-12/Department-of-Customer-Service-Annual-Report-2023-2024.pdf, page 32