All News

Tui McKeown is at Monash University and on the ICA board. She conducts ground-breaking research into how independent contractors think. Her latest edition of the IPro Index, sponsored by Entity Solutions contains lessons about how businesses can interact with the ‘new worker’. More here. More...

The launch of Freelancer.com onto the Australian stock market last week created great excitement. Upon listing, its 50 cent shares skyrocketed to $2.60 settling at $1.60. Commentators referred to it as potentially Australia’s Twitter.

The story underpinning the share market hype reflects not just a new age technology but rather a transformation in the way business and work is organised. Freelancer highlights how the transformation is expanding and will continue to overpower human resource practices inside large organisations, labour and tax laws and the very idea of what constitutes a business. Read full blogpost... More...

It was less than a fortnight ago that the Abbott government Ministers were sworn in. And we have to admit pleasant surprise at the speed with which new Small Business Minister Bruce Billson has moved to protect small business people. More...

One of the biggest challenges facing large firms these days is how to manage a ‘blended’ workforce. Few companies are able to operate with employees alone. The use of independent contractors ‘blended’ with employees is a new ‘normal’.  More...

I had a debate with union leaders at a conference last week. It was truly a ‘men are from Mars, women are from Venus’ experience. They were on about their ability to dictate ‘fairness’. I was about entrepreneurship through the human experience. We just didn’t ‘get’ each other. It was a robust exchange!  More...

An ICA member reflects that disability care requires flexible workforce arrangements, and people prepared to do the work! The ICA member says:

I am interested in the progress of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and admit self-interest.  I now have my 93-year-old, infirm mother living in my home and requiring a high level of care. More...

These figures show why small business is actually the big part of the economy and jobs.  Full statistics here.

  More...

The National Union of Workers explains its obsessive attitude towards casualisation and contractors (YouTube). But it is wrong. There’s no long-term change!   More...

The number of self-employed people continues to grow. We’ve pulled together recent reports and info on UK, USA and Australia. See below. More...

The ATO’s descriptions of who is/isn’t an independent contractor are out of whack with reality. Have a look at their descriptions for IT contractors. Then compare them with ICA member Luke’s description of reality. More...