News

Keep it local on all levels

In May 2014 the Tasmanian Government introduced their Buy Local Policy, which aims to increase opportunities for local suppliers to compete for Government business, supporting local businesses to create jobs and stimulate the economy to deliver growth. The policy contains an economic and local benefits test which, for all new tenders added 20% weighting for local suppliers. In 2020, this weighting was increased to 25% in response to COVID-19.

On Monday I was pleased to attend the announcement by the Deputy Premier, Hon. Michael Ferguson MP and Minister for Small Business, Hon. Madeleine Ogilvie MP that the 25% local weighting will be continued for another two years. The Deputy Premier also announced that in the nine months to 31 March 2022, Tasmanian businesses were awarded 86.2% of contracts valued at $50,000 or more. The total value of these contracts was $306.1 million. In a comment to the media, I suggested that State Government’s Buy Local Policy should be an example for all levels of government.

The success of the Buy Local Policy in the nine months leading to 31 March 2022 is another reminder of the importance of supporting local businesses or buying local. When someone says the words ‘buy local’ you might immediately think of business-to-consumer transactions which are of course, very important. However, business-to-business and government-to-business transactions can help local businesses thrive.

As I mentioned in a newsletter in November last year: 

  • If you’re sitting at your desk as you read this, take a look at the items surrounding you. By purchasing your stationery, IT equipment, or even that box of tissues next to the phone, are you supporting an American-owned company, a conglomerate with interests in hardware, groceries, and a huge chain of stores where almost all the products are manufactured overseas or the local family business that has its heart and soul right here in the community?  
  • If you still use business cards, letterhead, or pre-printed stationery, when it’s time to order, do you go to a certain company that’s American-owned but Irish-domiciled? Or the local business that’s been employing Launcestonians for almost a century and supports local community organisations regularly?
  • When it’s time to reward staff or thank clients, is it a bulk order of gift cards from that same conglomerate that has interests in hardware, groceries, etc or do you purchase gifts or gift vouchers from local retailers, restaurants, and cafes?  

If there is a product or service your organisation needs and you can’t find a local supplier, please don’t hesitate to give us a call – we’re only too happy to help.

Tamar River Report Card

Tuesday was report card day for the Tamar and there were mixed marks.

The not-at-all good news was the release of the Tamar and Esk Rivers program 2022 Tamar Estuary report card, in which the Launceston to Legana Zone (Zone 1) was still rated as “D” for poor ecosystem, after 14 years. The 2022 Report card has been produced using 12 months of kanamaluka/Tamar estuary ambient monitoring data, collected between December 2020 and November 2021, at 16 sites along the length of the estuary. The poor ecosystem rating is mostly driven by high levels of nutrients and elevated turbidity (cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large number of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye).

In good news, it was announced that Nick Duigan MLC has been appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Tamar Estuary. As passionate advocates for the Tamar, we welcome the announcement of a parliamentary secretary to report directly to the Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing and hope that the establishment of this position sees a number of areas addressed to improve the environmental, social and economic aspects of the estuary. The Chamber is in support of the TEMT vision for the Tamar and we hope that with Nick Duigan’s appointment we will see the plan implemented at a much faster pace than that of the Launceston Sewerage Improvement Program (LSIP), which was announced in 2016, yet we understand work is not planned to commence until 2025.

We strongly believe that if the health of the Tamar, particularly at Zone 1 is to improve, we need to see actions out of LSIP and overall better management of the Tamar. Our preference is for strong collaboration with river users, all levels of government, industry, agricultural producers and TasWater. We believe it’s time for integrated catchment management through a statutory authority.

We need to ensure the health of the river is improved, we need to make the river accessible to the public, we need to see the businesses that sit along the shore are thriving and most of all we need to see this now, not in another decade.

The Tamar

AFL in northern Tasmania

With the debate raging over a Tasmanian AFL team, we feel it’s vital that we protect AFL in northern Tasmania. Since 2001 when Hawthorn began playing at its second home in Launceston the economic stimulus to the region, particularly the hospitality & tourism and retail sectors, has been incredibly valuable. You only need to be in the CBD or Invermay on an “AFL weekend” to witness the value to the region. With AFL a winter sport, this economic stimulus comes at a traditionally quieter time.
 
In addition to the need to protect AFL in northern Tasmania, we note the media are now reporting the cost of the proposed Stadium Tasmania at $1 billion. With the current construction crunch and supply chain concerns, we are concerned this amount will dramatically increase.
 
What are your thoughts on a Tasmanian AFL team? We’d love to know, please contact us and share your thoughts and ideas...

Minimum wage increase

Yesterday (15/06/22) news broke that following its Annual Wage Review 2021-22, the Fair Work Commission made the two announcements: 

  • The National Minimum Wage will increase by 5.2% which amounts to $40 a week.
  • Award minimum wages will increase by 4.6%, which is subject to a minimum increase for award classifications of $40 per week and based on a 38-hour week for a full-time employee.  

This announcement comes on top of the planned increase to the superannuation guarantee rise from 10% to 10.5% on the 1 July. The super guarantee will continue to increase by .5% until it reaches 12% in 2025.

While the super guarantee increase has been known for some time and a wage rise was expected, the value of this wage rise is a lot higher than expected and may see business owners scrambling to recast their 2022-23 budgets.

There are some important considerations when looking at this issue: 

  • Cost of living continues to increase and those on minimum wage or award rates may be finding it incredibly tough.
  • This wage rise will increase costs for businesses in sectors that are already facing cost increases in raw materials and ingredients and supplies.
  • There is the potential for such a significant wage increase to contribute to inflation, and inflation is considered the biggest threat to the economy.

Do you pay your staff under an award or the minimum wage? How will this wage increase affect your business? We’d really like to hear from you, please contact us and share your thoughts. All comments will be treated with sensitivity and will be anonymised.

They’re onto us!

Come with me on a short journey, if you will, back in time.  Its late 2021 and Launceston is named a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Fast forward to February 2022 and Launceston is named WOTIF’s Top Aussie Town. Jump ahead to last Monday and the news broke, Launceston is the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania (TICT)’s Top Tassie Tourism Town for 2022.

Three awards were presented in the 2022 Top Tourism Town Awards, with Strahan taking out the award for towns with a population less than 1500, Sheffield taking out the award for towns with a population under 5000 and Launceston winning the category for towns with a population over 5000.

As the editorial article that formed part of Launceston’s submission to the award states:

There’s something that lies beneath the surface here that defines us as a city. You may not see it at first, but the moment you step foot here, you feel it. You sense it in the architecture, in the streets, out in nature, between the people —an undercurrent—born from generations of hard-work, curiosity, community, resilience, independence.

It’s clear from our UNESCO designation, and our Top Town Awards that they’re on to us… the world is waking up to what a wonderful piece of the world we have here. It’s also clear we’re on our way to achieving the Chamber’s vision for Launceston to be one of the great regional cities of the world.

While these awards and the UNESCO designation are an amazing achievement, particularly for our outstanding tourism, food, beverage and hospitality businesses, we can’t rest on our laurels. We need to keep striving to improve our city.  So how do we continue to progress our city?

  • Greening will make for a great start. A greener city is a more vibrant city and vibrancy attracts more social activity in our CBD.
  • An improved night-time economy will enable visitors to enjoy our amazing food and beverages in style while enjoying on-street dining. This will commence with City Heart Stage 2, which we still hope will receive the federal funding it needs to commence.
  • Innovation and technology to make Launceston an even smarter city, offer wayfinding to tourists and telling our heritage stories could increase awareness and interaction with our rich history. (Please see the article below participating in the Smart City Strategy survey)

To quote Mayor Albert van Zetten, “It’s fantastic to see our city being recognised once more for its tourism offering and I want to congratulate all those who work in the sector so passionately to attract new visitors to Launceston.”

Congratulations Launceston!

Have you got an idea that would make our top town (city) even better? We’d love to hear it.

.au – is it for you?

As of the 24th of March, .au second-level domain names are now available in Australia. This means if you have a local connection to Australia or already have a .com.au, .org.au, .gov.au or .edu.au you have until the 20th of September to reserve your .au equivalent domain name, if you don’t secure it after the 20th of September it will become available to the general public. For example, the Chamber’s current domain is www.lcc.asn.au, we now have the first option to purchase www.lcc.au.

This is an important consideration for your business. While the new second-level domain names are shorter and potentially more memorable, they also offer cybercriminals another avenue to conduct fraudulent cyber activities. Opportunistic cybercriminals could register your .au domain name in an attempt to impersonate your business.

For example, if you have currently registered yourbusiness.com.au, a cybercriminal could register yourbusiness.au or yourbusinesscom.au and use these domains to conduct fraudulent cyber activities. 

The Australian Cyber Security Centre has recommended that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register their .au equivalents before 20 September 2022. If a business does not reserve their .au equivalent direct domain name during this six-month period, that name will become available to the public on a first come, first served basis.

For more information, please click here or visit Platinum Chamber member Kingthing Marketing’s blog post on the topic.

1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9

Become a Member

Join the LCC today and expand your business network and potential.

Member Directory

Discover and connect with other local Launceston businesses.

Chamber Events

View all upcoming events via the new LCC event calendar

Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Spotify
Consent to display content from - Spotify
Sound Cloud
Consent to display content from - Sound