WITH no department and not even its own website, the NSW Ministry for Small Business barely exists.

Even so, its minister, Steve Whan, gets a seat at the cabinet table - although he has no small business "ministry" to speak of.

Mr Whan may be forced to give up the Small Business portfolio and all his decisions be declared void if his predecessor, Tony Stewart, succeeds in suing the state for denying him natural justice when he was dumped from cabinet.

However, Mr Whan has not made any decisions since he took up the position. Since Mr Whan followed Mr Stewart into the portfolio in February, there have been only a handful of press releases, on issues such as supporting Aboriginal businesses to attend a trade fair and holding free seminars.

More importantly for Mr Whan, he is also Minister for Emergency Services, which gives him plenty of photo opportunities during floods and fires.

But, like a host of other so-called ministries that exist in little more than name, Small Business has hardly any profile within the Government.

Apart from a couple of Dorothy Dix questions - one in late 2007 to the then minister, Joe Tripodi, and another to the then Commerce minister, John Della Bosca, in 2006 - the topic has been largely ignored in Parliament.

The ministry has no independent website, and forms part of the NSW Department of State and Regional Development.

It would make sense for the Ministry of Small Business to also be aligned with the Ministry for Regulatory Reform, which - via the Better Regulation Office - has a role in cutting red tape. Confusingly, however, it sits within the Department of Premier and Cabinet - nowhere near its natural home at the Department of Commerce.

The Business Regulation post occasionally appears in public, and is finalising cuts to the number of trade licences needed.

The Minister for Citizenship (Virginia Judge), the Minister for Western Sydney (David Borger), the Minister for Volunteering and also the Minister for Youth (Graham West holds both roles) are all largely nominal positions with little clear role. They are a few of the goodies the Premier hands out to keep the various political factions at bay.

Small Business, for example, had a $22.1 million allocation in the 2008-09 budget, with its role praised for "facilitating investment" and "developing an attractive business environment".

Having the minister allows the Government to say it takes small businesses seriously. "There has to be someone who is the Government's point person for small business," said a spokesman for the Premier, Nathan Rees. '