The Malinauskas government has delivered on its election promise to ensure government contractors are paid within 15 days of lodging an invoice.

The Late Payment of Government Debts Amendment bill, which has passed through parliament, halves the standard payment timeline from 30 days to 15.

The changes will help improve cash flow and financial stability for South Australian businesses doing it tough in the current economic climate.

In the past year, more than $22 billion dollars worth of payments were made by government agencies, with over 3 million payments processed.

With the majority of new contracts being awarded to SA businesses, the payment of invoices within 15 days will make sure billions of dollars flows more quickly to the state’s small business operators.

The bill also extends the reduced payment timeline for not-for-profit entities that work with the State Government.

It follows the introduction of automatic interest payments on overdue invoices, to incentivise prompt payments across government systems.

These measures build on our commitment to utilise South Australian government procurement money to support local businesses and jobs.

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Attributable to Stephen Mullighan

The Malinauskas Labor government is committed to making the public dollar work for South Australians.

These changes, requiring government invoices to be paid within 15 days, will help support South Australian businesses, by improving cash flow.

It builds on South Australia being named the best place in the nation to do business, according to the Business Council of Australia, and topping the leaderboard for the past three quarters in a row in Commsec’s State of the States report.