A new Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has been appointed to take over from Bruce Billson on 11 March 2026.
Lynda McAlary-Smith – currently the Victorian Small Business Commissioner – has been named as the next Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO).
McAlary-Smith will take over the position from the current ASBFEO Billson on 11 March 2026, when Billson’s five-year term concludes.
In her new role, which will run for a five-year term, McAlary-Smith will advocate for and assist small businesses and family enterprises, including by providing dispute resolution support and low‑cost legal advice, especially in cases involving industry codes or commercial disputes.
Who is the new ASBFEO?
McAlary-Smith is the current Victorian Small Business Commissioner and is a qualified lawyer.
Before becoming a small business commissioner, she was the executive director of regulatory operations at the Victorian Building Authority and has held senior executive positions with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), where she led their small business strategy to support small-business owners in understanding their workplace rights and obligations.
Prior to her time with the FWO, she was a commercial litigator for businesses in private practice.
Federal Minister for Small Business, Dr Anne Aly MP, named the new ASBFEO on Monday (22 December), where she noted her extensive experience working with businesses nationally.
Aly commented: “With more than 800,000 new small businesses since May 2022, it’s obvious that Australia is a great place to start and grow a small business.
“The Ombudsman plays an important role in helping us to ensure small businesses have the conditions they need to not only get off the ground but to thrive.
“Ms McAlary‑Smith will be a strong advocate for the more than 2.6 million small businesses and family enterprises right across Australia.”
Billson welcomed the announcement of McAlary-Smith as his successor and stated: “Lynda is an excellent choice as the next Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, given her established network of stakeholders, regulators and policymakers and experience in dispute resolution and advocacy in support of small business in Victoria.
“I’m looking forward to supporting the transition and ensuring Australia’s small and family business community continue to have a strong and fearless ally in their corner, an authoritative and persuasive voice and an advocate of constructive policy measures and initiatives that will help to ‘energise enterprise’.
“After a record year of assistance requests, ground-breaking analytical and research insights and real and meaningful progress on many advocacy priorities including ‘right-sizing’ regulation, improved small business access to justice and then need for more targeted tax reform, ASBFEO has positive momentum that with Lynda at the helm, will no doubt carry forward and be added to.”
The Minister for Small Business thanked the outgoing ASBFEO “for his significant contributions to the small and family business community and for his strong advocacy on their behalf”, which Billson said was “appreciated”.
He has held the role as ASBFEO since 2021, after he took on the role from Kate Carnell.
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