Who to call in your state: small business commissioners, mapped

Ask ten owners which government office handles a fight with a landlord, and you’ll get ten answers. Part of the confusion is that Australia doesn’t have one small business commissioner. It has a patchwork: some states set up an independent office by statute, some run an advisory body, and some leave it to a general ombudsman and the federal ASBFEO.

This guide maps that patchwork as it stands in October 2026, and is blunt about where a commissioner stops being useful, especially if your trouble involves a lender.

Which states and territories have a commissioner?

Using the list on business.gov.au, the position looks like this.

Jurisdiction	Body	What it does
New South Wales	Office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner	Helps and advocates for small businesses
Victoria	Victorian Small Business Commissioner	Supports small business and gives independent advice on business disputes
Queensland	Queensland Small Business Commissioner (QSBC)	Statutory office created under the Small Business Commissioner Act 2022
South Australia	Small Business Commission SA	Information and advice to help resolve and manage disputes
Western Australia	Small Business Development Corporation	Free advice for small businesses
Tasmania	None listed. Business Tasmania and the Tasmanian Small Business Council cover support and advocacy	Ombudsman Tasmania handles disputes with state agencies
Northern Territory	None listed. Territory Business Advisors give frontline support	Ombudsman NT handles disputes with territory agencies
ACT	None listed	ACT Ombudsman handles disputes with ACT agencies

Two cautions. First, the roles move: Queensland’s commissioner was only appointed permanently in February 2026 after an acting period, and Tasmania is consulting on a new small business strategy. Second, “advice” bodies such as Western Australia’s Small Business Development Corporation are not the same as a commissioner who can run a formal mediation. Look at each office’s own page before you assume what it can do.

What do commissioners actually do?

The commissioner model began in Victoria in the early 2000s and was copied elsewhere. The common ingredients:

• Low-cost mediation. A neutral person helps both sides reach an agreement, and the cost is a fraction of a court case.
• Retail and commercial lease disputes. Often the most common category.
• Supplier, customer and contractor disputes. Late payment, scope disagreements, unpaid invoices.
• Advocacy. Telling government where rules hurt small business.
• Referrals. Pointing you to the right regulator when your issue sits elsewhere.

In Queensland the office’s stated aims are to improve the operating environment for small businesses and to cut the time and cost of resolving disputes involving them. It treats a business with fewer than 20 full-time equivalent employees as small, regardless of structure or turnover. That’s tighter than AFCA’s test (fewer than 100 employees), so a medium-sized business might qualify for one body and not the other.

Where do lenders fit in?

This is the bit that surprises people. If your dispute is with a bank or finance company, a commissioner usually isn’t the right door. ASBFEO’s guidance is to complain to the financial provider first, then go to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Our guide on AFCA and small business disputes sets out the limits, time frames and steps.

Where a commissioner can still help in a lending story:

• A landlord dispute that has drained your cash. A rent review or make-good claim might be the reason you’re behind on a loan.
• A late-paying business customer. Mediation can unlock a payment faster than chasing it. See how to manage slow-paying customers.
• Dealing with a government agency. State ombudsmen cover state agencies; ASBFEO covers many Commonwealth ones, including help with ATO disputes.
• Making sense of the system. A commissioner’s staff often know exactly which regulator owns your problem.

Farm borrowers have their own route. ASBFEO points farm mortgage disputes to state farm debt mediation schemes rather than handling them itself.

What do you do if your state has no commissioner?

Owners in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT aren’t without help; the path just runs through different doors.

1. Start with ASBFEO’s Dispute Support tool. It refers you to the most appropriate service, whether that’s ASBFEO or a specialist or state-based body. Use it after you’ve tried talking to the other party and put your complaint in writing.
2. Use the state business service. Business Tasmania, Territory Business Advisors in the NT and the ACT’s business support teams can explain local rules and grant programs. Our small business grants by state guide covers those programs.
3. Try the relevant ombudsman for state government disputes, or the industry ombudsman for energy, telecommunications and similar services.
4. Consider community justice centres. ASBFEO notes the Northern Territory’s Community Justice Centre mediation is free.
5. Get legal advice if the amount is large or enforcement has begun.

A worked example: a lease dispute that turned into a cash flow problem

Take an illustrative Brisbane café whose landlord claims $24k in outgoings the tenant says were never agreed. The owner withholds payment, the landlord threatens lockout, and meanwhile a $60k equipment loan repayment falls due. Three separate problems, three separate doors:

• The landlord dispute goes to the Queensland Small Business Commissioner for mediation.
• The loan repayment is raised with the lender early, in writing, as a hardship request (see how to ask a lender for hardship help).
• The short-term cash gap is treated as a funding question, possibly solved with a working capital facility rather than fought over.

Keeping the three apart stops a landlord fight from becoming a default.

How should you approach a commissioner?

A few habits make any mediation service work better.

• Write down the dispute in two paragraphs and the outcome you’d accept. Mediation works when you know your minimum.
• Keep the paper trail: lease, contract, invoices, emails, and dates of calls.
• Try the other side first, in writing, with a deadline. Most commissioners will ask whether you have.
• Check the time limits. Some statutory schemes, and AFCA, have deadlines.
• Don’t stop paying what you do owe. Withholding an undisputed amount can hand the other side a clean default.

When the dispute is draining cash

Disputes cost money before they cost anything else. Legal fees, lost trading days and withheld payments leave a gap that doesn’t wait for the mediation date. If your resolution is weeks away and a supplier or the payroll isn’t, funding is a separate decision that deserves its own look. If cash flow is already stretched by a dispute, our guide on what to do if you can’t make a loan repayment deals with the lender side, and our comparison of government grants vs business loans helps you weigh the other funding sources.

If you’d like a quick opinion on funding while you sort the dispute, send us the basics; it won’t cost you a credit check.

Turning a dispute into a plan

You don’t have to settle a landlord or supplier fight before you can work out your funding. The enquiry form takes about a minute, and asking doesn’t affect your credit score. We don’t share your details around a crowd of lenders. Someone on our team reads your situation and rings you to talk through what might fit.

Please fill in the form as accurately as you can: the amount, what it’s for, any security and any notices you’ve received. That helps us suggest the right option first time, instead of working backwards from a mismatch.

Start the enquiry and get a call back →