Slowest-Paying Big Businesses in Australia [2026 Data]

Australia’s Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry took up to 94 days to pay the slowest 5% of its small-business invoices in the reporting period covering January to June 2025, the longest 95th-percentile payment time of any industry tracked under the government’s Payment Times Reporting Scheme. That is the standout finding in the Payment Times Reporting Regulator’s most recent data, and it sits inside the same broader Australian late-payment picture this site tracks quarter by quarter. Here is the full 2026 ranking of which big businesses and industries pay slowest, and the specific named organizations the scheme has already made public.

Which industries pay small suppliers slowest?

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, by a wide margin. In the reporting period from 1 January to 30 June 2025 (Reporting Cycle 9), large entities in that industry, which covers accounting, legal, engineering, IT consulting, and similar firms, paid 95% of their small-business invoices within 94 days, according to the Payment Times Reporting Regulator’s data. That is well above the all-industry average of 64 days and higher than every other of the 19 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification divisions the scheme tracks. Retail Trade came next at 77 days, followed by Mining at 70 days, Construction at 68 days, and Manufacturing and Information Media and Telecommunications tied at 67 days each.

Figure 1: Slowest-paying Australian industries by 95th-percentile payment time, Reporting Cycle 9 (January to June 2025). Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

The 95th-percentile figure matters because it strips out the businesses that pay quickly and isolates how long the worst-behaved 5% of invoices actually take. Professional Services’ average payment time across all its invoices was a comparatively unremarkable 27.9 days, only slightly above the 27.4-day all-industry average, and 64.8% of its invoices were paid on time, roughly in line with other industries. The industry’s problem sits entirely in its tail: a small share of large clients in that sector are taking three months or more to settle, which is invisible in a headline average but very visible to the small firm still waiting on payment 90 days after issuing the invoice.

How many large businesses actually pay within 30 days?

Only 15% of them. Of the 3,098 large reporting entities that bought from small-business suppliers in Reporting Cycle 9, just 469 reported a 95th-percentile payment time of 30 days or less, the threshold the scheme treats as a “safe harbor” from being classified a slow payer. The remaining 2,630 entities, 85% of the total, took longer than 30 days to pay 95% of their invoices. That share has held roughly steady for several reporting cycles even as the average share of invoices paid within 30 days has crept up from 63.2% in the scheme’s first cycle in 2021 to 68.2% in the most recent one, meaning the typical invoice is settling a little faster while the slowest-paying tail of large businesses barely moves. It is a different slice of the same regulator dataset behind how long AU businesses wait to get paid, which covers the scheme’s overall 64-day 95th-percentile figure; this report drills into which specific industries and named entities sit behind that average. A separate look at the wider Payment Times Report data across all industries is also planned as its own report on this site.

Figure 2: Share of large businesses that met the 30-day payment safe harbor, Reporting Cycle 9. Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

Figure 3: Share of large businesses paying small suppliers within 30 days, Reporting Cycles 1 to 9 (2021 to 2025). Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

How far do the slowest industries stretch past their own agreed terms?

By roughly 3 times, in the two industries the Regulator itself singled out. Mining and Information Media and Telecommunications both offered small-business suppliers average common payment terms of around 30 days, 32 days for Mining and 29 days for Information Media and Telecommunications, and both reported average payment times close to those terms, 30.0 and 24.7 days respectively. But their 95th-percentile figures told a different story: 70 days for Mining and 67 days for Information Media and Telecommunications, more than triple the agreed term. Professional Services and Retail Trade show the same pattern at an even larger scale: Professional Services’ 28-day common term against a 94-day 95th percentile, and Retail Trade’s 31-day term against a 77-day 95th percentile.

Figure 4: Agreed payment term vs actual 95th-percentile payment time, Reporting Cycle 9. Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

That gap is the practical reason a small business cannot simply trust a client’s stated payment terms. A supplier invoicing a large Professional Services client under 30-day terms has no way of knowing in advance whether that particular invoice will land in the typical 28-day window or the slowest-paying 5%, which is exactly the uncertainty an automated payment reminder is built to chase down without the supplier needing to track it manually.

Does the government name individual slow-paying companies?

Not yet, as of the most recent public data. The Payment Times Reporting Regulator identifies the slowest 20% of payers, both overall and within each industry, and wrote to more than 650 large reporting entities after Reporting Cycle 9 to advise them they had been flagged as slow small business payers and to give them a chance to improve before facing a formal direction. Under the scheme’s reforms, an entity identified as a slow payer in two consecutive reporting cycles can be issued a Ministerial direction requiring it to publicly disclose that status on its own website, procurement documents, and sustainability reports. Reporting Cycle 9 and Cycle 10 are the first two consecutive cycles the Regulator is using for that identification, and it has said the first directions will only be considered after 31 March 2026, once Cycle 10 reports are in. In response to the initial round of letters, more than 150 entities engaged with the Regulator and over 50 confirmed they had taken steps to improve their payment practices.

Which named large organizations have the worst payment times?

The one place the scheme already publishes individual organization names alongside payment-time data is its list of Commonwealth reporting entities, 35 government-owned corporations and companies with obligations under the Act. Among them, ASC Pty Ltd, the government-owned submarine builder, reported the slowest 95th-percentile payment time at 76 days. The Australian Rail Track Corporation followed at 73 days, then Airservices Australia and the Australian Postal Corporation tied at 72 days each, and Comcare Australia at 71 days. Across all 35 entities, individual results ranged from 5 days at the fastest, Defense Housing Australia, to 76 days at ASC Pty Ltd, even though the group’s average common payment term was just 19.6 days.

Figure 5: Slowest 95th-percentile payment times among named Commonwealth reporting entities, Reporting Cycle 9. Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

Commonwealth entities as a group actually outperform the all-industry average, paying 74.3% of small-business invoices on time against a 66.5% all-industry average, and their average 95th-percentile payment time of 40 days sits well below the 64-day all-industry figure. But that group average hides real spread: some individual Commonwealth entities pay on time only 4 times out of 10, and the Regulator’s own commentary flags that performance among these entities remains “a focus area” it continues to monitor, since the Australian Government has said it expects Commonwealth entities to lead by example on prompt payment.

Slowest-Paying Australian Industries: 2026 Snapshot

Industry	Common payment term	95th-percentile payment time	On-time payment rate
Professional, Scientific & Technical Services	28 days	94 days	64.8%
Retail Trade	31 days	77 days	67.5%
Mining	32 days	70 days	68.7%
Construction	34 days	68 days	64.8%
Manufacturing	35 days	67 days	62.1%
Information Media & Telecommunications	29 days	67 days	69.1%
All industries (average)	29 days	64 days	66.5%

Table 1: Payment times by industry, Reporting Cycle 9 (January to June 2025). Source: Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Regulator’s Update, January 2026.

The Bottom Line

Australia’s Payment Times Reporting Scheme does not yet name individual private companies as slow payers, but the sector and Commonwealth-entity data it does publish paints a consistent picture: a large business’s payment terms tell a small supplier almost nothing about how long the slowest invoices in that industry actually take to clear. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services offers close to a 28-day standard term and still stretches to 94 days for its slowest 5% of invoices, and 85% of all large reporting entities miss the scheme’s own 30-day safe harbor. With the first Slow Small Business Payer directions due to be considered after 31 March 2026, individual company names may start appearing on the public register within the next year or two, but until then the safest assumption for a small business is that any given large client could be sitting in that slow-paying tail. Sending every invoice as a BillyPaid payable link with a clear due date, backed by an automated reminder that fires the moment a due date passes, gives a supplier a paper trail and a nudge working in the background regardless of which side of the industry average a particular client falls on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Australian industry is the slowest to pay small-business suppliers?

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, which took up to 94 days to pay the slowest 5% of its small-business invoices in the reporting period covering January to June 2025, the highest 95th-percentile payment time of any of the 19 industries tracked under the Payment Times Reporting Scheme. Retail Trade (77 days) and Mining (70 days) were the next slowest.

Does the government name individual slow-paying companies?

Not yet, as of the most recent public data. The Payment Times Reporting Regulator wrote to more than 650 large businesses it identified as slow small business payers after the January to June 2025 reporting cycle, and the scheme’s reforms allow a Ministerial direction that forces a company to publicly disclose its status as a Slow Small Business Payer, but the regulator has said the first such directions will only be considered after 31 March 2026. The one place individual organization names are already published with payment-time data is the 35 Commonwealth entities and companies that report under the scheme.

Which named large organizations have the worst payment times?

Among the 35 Commonwealth reporting entities and companies, the government-owned submarine builder ASC Pty Ltd reported the slowest 95th-percentile payment time at 76 days, followed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (73 days), Airservices Australia and Australian Postal Corporation (72 days each), and Comcare Australia (71 days).

How many large Australian businesses fail to pay on time within 30 days?

85%. In the reporting period covering January to June 2025, 2,630 of the 3,098 large reporting entities with small-business suppliers took longer than 30 days to pay 95% of their invoices, and only 469 entities met the scheme’s 30-day safe harbor threshold.

Sources and References

1. Payment Times Reporting Regulator - Regulator’s Update, January 2026 (Reporting Cycle 9, 1 January to 30 June 2025 data)
2. Payment Times Reporting Scheme - Media release, Regulator’s Update, 2 February 2026
3. Payment Times Reporting Scheme - About the Payment Times Reporting Regulator
4. Payment Times Reporting Scheme - How to use the payment times register

Note: All figures verified as of October 2026, drawn from the Regulator’s most recently published reporting cycle (Reporting Cycle 9, covering 1 January to 30 June 2025) at the time of writing.