Hon Stuart Nash

Minister for Small Business

17 October 2018 MEDIA STATEMENT

Small Business Minister Stuart Nash is encouraging the Australian and New Zealand public to provide feedback on a joint electronic invoicing (e-Invoicing) initiative that will save businesses time and money.

“Research indicates that the economic benefits of e-Invoicing could exceed $30 billion over ten years, thanks to the significant productivity gains it offers,” says Mr Nash.

“E-Invoicing gets rid of the manual handling of bills so the process becomes faster and more accurate and therefore the chances of problems and delays occurring are reduced. It’s like internet banking where my bank system accepts payments from your bank system.

“To emphasise the scale, New Zealand and Australian businesses process around 1.3 billion invoices annually, and e-Invoicing aims to help them save time and money by allowing the direct exchange of invoices between suppliers’ and buyers’ financial systems.

“This Government is committed to growing the economy and working with businesses to encourage productivity. We want to create a seamless trans-Tasman business environment and e-Invoicing is part of that.

“We’re looking for people to give us feedback on the framework that will be used for the day to day operation of e-Invoicing in Australia and New Zealand,” says Mr Nash.

The framework will be based on international standards that allow information to be shared more efficiently.

This consultation is the latest step in the New Zealand and Australian Governments’ commitment to progress e-Invoicing as part of the Single Economic Market agenda.

“We encourage anyone from Australia and New Zealand who is interested in the initiative to give feedback on the consultation through the MBIE website,” says Mr Nash.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1810/eInvoicing_operational_governance__discussion_paper_.pdf

ENDS

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