Here comes 2012 – the big regulatory changes you need to be ready for

A new year is often accompanied by new regulations. In 2012 there’s plenty for business to be across, from industrial relations to health and safety, tax and super to consumer law.

Here is SmartCompany’s guide to what’s changing in 2012 and what experts tip for the key areas of work health and safety, industrial relations, franchising, tax and super, and consumer law.

There’s a lot to prepare for. Will your business be ready?

Occupational health and safety

Hopes for harmonised occupational health and safety laws in 2012 have been dashed, with just New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory set to meet the January 1 deadline for the new national framework.

The harmonised laws, which are supported by the Australian Industry Group and started with Federal Government legislation, mean that:

• Companies will have broader obligations to consult with people performing work, including contractors.
• Officers of a corporation will be required to exercise due diligence to ensure the organisation complies with OH&S responsibilities.
• Prosecutors will need to prove the employer did not take all reasonably practicable measures to prevent the risk to health and safety from taking place.

Hall & Wilcox senior associate Jessica Fletcher says businesses need to spend the time doing a gap analysis and work out what they need to do to ensure they can comply with the amended laws in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

But Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia have not introduced the relevant legislation, and are not expected to do so until next year, giving businesses operating in these states breathing room for harmonisation.

Australian Industry Group says Tasmania is locked in for 1 January 2013 and SA could be operative as early as July 2012. WA and Victoria will not join before 2013.

There’s also a grace period for businesses which will need to significantly change their practices, delivering affected businesses an extra 12 months to transition to the new rules.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations says a ‘new’ duty might exist where a jurisdiction does not currently have regulations for a particular area.

“A ‘significantly modified existing’ duty might exist where there is a requirement to be licensed which was not previously required or the new regulation contains a greater degree of specificity than is currently the case,” DEEWR says.

“However, where a duty under the model WHS Regulations is the same or very similar and has the same critical elements as a duty under pre-harmonised regulations, the WHS regulation should apply immediately.”

“Because each jurisdiction will be implementing the new harmonised regulations from a different starting point, this will need to be determined by each jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis.”

It says the jurisdictions are best placed to assess and determine appropriate transitional arrangements because each jurisdiction will implement the work health and safety regulations from a different starting point.

Fletcher says the harmonised laws are best practice and worth working toward for businesses operating in jurisdictions across the country.

“Businesses still need to look forward,” she says. “Projects that have been started should continue with time up your sleeves.”

Industrial relations

Beyond OHS, a review of the Fair Work Act will coincide with the rolling over of many enterprise agreements, meaning next year will be yet another interesting year on the industrial relations front.

Employment Minister Chris Evans said this week the review would be “done by someone independent of government, independent of the department, and independent of trade unions and employers.”

Middletons workplace relations and safety partner Gerard Phillips says the FWA review is the headline issue for IR in 2012.

But he says he’s not going to burn the midnight oil writing a submission, tipping “tinkering” at best, but adding he doubted the Act would be the law in five years’ time.

He notes that the bill’s author is now our Prime Minister. “To significantly change the Act is to admit fault in the first place, and the PM won’t do that,” he says.

“I expect nothing will come out if because the Government is likely to reject the extreme positions on both sides [employer groups and unions],” Phillips says.

He says another thing to watch out for is further IR disputation as workplace agreements made under Work Choice continue to expire.

Franchising

The Franchise Council of Australia says the regulatory setup for a national small business commissioner is likely to be introduced next year – and it’ll be paying close attention to this, and how the commissioner fits in with existing state small business commissioners.

A national small business commissioner is supported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s chair Rod Sims.

FCA executive director Steve Wright says that a national small business commissioner would be well-placed to deal with complaints about the industry, following suggestions the FCA was looking at establishing an independent investigations officer to delve into complaints about franchising.

Wright says he also expects further progress through 2012 on its retail tenancy code of conduct, a voluntary code for landlords and tenants to help stem disputes between the two.

The FCA has been consulting with the competition regulator on the proposed code, to ensure it does not contain any anti-competitive provisions. “The ball is rolling,” Wright says.

Australian Consumer Law

The Australian Consumer Law has standardised consumer guarantees across the country.

The ACCC says this means “consumers from Darwin to Dubbo” have the same consumer guarantees.

“Small businesses should be aware of the rights a consumer has for a refund, repair or replacement of faulty products or product that don’t do what they advertise,” it says.

The changes mean that companies can offer warranties in addition to what’s already covered by ACL, but can’t abridge those rights.

Also from next year, regulations will start amending the unsolicited consumer agreement provisions of the ACL to provide a 10-day cooling off period for goods prices under $500.

“This will allow businesses to immediately supply goods that consumers have consented to buy but does not allow the business to supply services or accept payment for goods within the cooling off period,” the ACCC says.

Tax and Super

Institute of Chartered Accountants tax counsel Yasser El-Ansary says small business in particular should be mindful of changes from July 1, 2012 that include:

• A reduction in the company tax rate cut for incorporated entities from 30% to 29%.
• An increase in the instant write-off threshold to $6500 for all business assets.
• The replacing of two depreciation pools with a single depreciation pool.
• The introduction of an immediate write-off for the first $5000 of the cost of a motor vehicle purchased from 1 July 2012.

For super, there’s nothing major planned for January 1, 2012, with changes mostly set for the next financial year.

Industry body the Association of Super Funds of Australia says from July 1:

• Funds can use tax files numbers as a primary locator to find accounts within a fund and link contributions and rollovers with member accounts.
• The ATO will provide a new online facility for members to view their active superannuation accounts that are currently reported to the ATO, in addition to their lost accounts and other superannuation monies held by the ATO (for example, unclaimed money). 
• Employees will receive information on their payslips about the amount of super actually paid into their super fund account. Employees will also receive a quarterly notification from their super fund if regular super payments cease.
• Where a member has multiple accounts within a fund, funds would be required to consolidate these accounts, where possible.
• Concessional contribution caps will increase to $50,000 for individuals who are 50 years old or over, where their total super balances are below $500,000. Higher concessional super contributions cap for eligible individuals who are 50 years old or over with total super balances of less than $500,000 will be set to $25,000 above the general concessional cap (currently $25,000). This is also proposed to apply from 1 July 2012, with the higher concessional cap being $50,000 for the 2012-13 financial year.
• For self-managed super funds, new legislative standards will apply to all new investments in collectables and personal use assets. All existing investments of this kind need to comply with new standards by 1 July 2016.