Government introduces legislation for unfair contract protections; Gina Rinehart says Australia should copy India: Midday Roundup

Small Business Minister Bruce Billson introduced legislation in Parliament yesterday to protect small businesses from unfair contracts.

The election promise will allow courts to amend terms of small business contracts that are considered to be unfair, with examples including contracts about rights to termination or pay-out requirements.

To fall under the small business contract protections, a company must employ fewer than 20 workers and the contracts must have a value of below the prescribed threshold of $100,000, or $250,000 for multi-year contracts.

Gina Rinehart says Australia should copy India

India has a widespread history of poverty but that didn’t stop Australia’s richest person from suggesting Australia follow its lead when it comes to running an economy, Fairfax reports.

At the launch of her second book, From Red Tape to Red Carpet¸ Gina Rinehart spoke about the amount of red tape companies in Australia face to a VIP audience that included India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia’s Trade Minster Andrew Robb.

“Layers of red tape just keep pushing up costs in Australia and frankly Australia can’t afford this,” says Rinehart.

Rinehart also said at the launch that she would have never pursued a career in mining had she known how much red tape was involved.

Markets down on Greek failure

Local markets have opened down this morning and Wall St closed in the red overnight, following a failure to find a resolution on the debt crisis in Greece.

“In an entirely predictable manoeuvre, the developed world’s oldest adolescent has once again failed to solve its problems at the eleventh hour,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, in a statement.

“Once again, according to the Greek PM, the fault lies with everyone but Greece itself. Amid hints of recriminations and dark conspiracies, optimism evaporated,” he continued.

“Locally, a softer AUD may add some support, but technical selling could kick in, in recognition of the failures at resistance. These failures at both the index and single stock level are likely to reinforce each other.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 41.2 points to 5645.6 points at 12:00pm AEST. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones closed down 0.98%, falling 178.00 points to 17,966.1 points.