Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

Online services cut the red tape for small business

Small and home-based businesses in southeast South Australia wanting a council permit to burn rubbish or drive large trucks on local roads can now do so by going to the website of the District Council of Grant and filling out the form. This demonstration project has been helped by the Australian Government's $50 million Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund which provided incentives to Local Governments to press ahead with regulatory reforms that benefit small and home-based business.

The District Council of Grant was selected in early 2005 for a demonstration project that could be used as a model for councils around Australia.

District Council of Grant CEO, Russell Peate, said council was one of a few councils Australia wide to be chosen for this pilot project.

"We accepted the invitation to ensure that the services we offer our local businesses remain at the forefront of councils Australia wide," Russell Peate said.

The selection of these two permits for the demonstration project was considered a priority for the local rural business. They were high volume transactions that would provide an immediate benefit to many local businesses by removing the travel time and effort previously required to apply for these permits.

The South Australian Government's Bizgate transaction gateway system was chosen as the technical solution to get these permits online because of its proven, reliable and low development cost.

The District Council of Grant administers 24 permits which primarily relate to business activities in the region. Applications for all these permits were paper based, and approval turnaround times were being delayed due to the manual steps in the process.

Russell Peate said the online permit transactions for small and home-based businesses saves time when completing and lodging the application, and to receive the approved permit.

"Using online tools is growing rapidly, particularly broadband, and this increases the likelihood of higher take up of online business transactions for small and home-based businesses which, in turn, will add to their economic prosperity," he said.

In addition to this demonstration project, the District Council of Grant is also part of two consortia that were successful in obtaining funding under the competitive grants component of RRIF - the National Electronic Development Assessment Project ($7.09million) with Cairns as the lead council, and the BizConnect Project ($650,000) with Alexandrina as the lead council. This will allow District Council of Grant to further extend its online capability.

Council, which has a diverse industry base, including agriculture, timber, seafood, transport and food processing, places a strong emphasis on economic development. For more information please visit http://www.ausindustry.gov.au

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