The Chamber maintains a number of standing sub-committees that pull together some of the region’s best people around specific topics, to examine areas for improvement, and identify paths to success. One such committee is the Community & Health Industry Committee (CHIC) where we examine the ‘business’ of the health & allied Industries. I’m pleased to be able to say that the committee includes the CEOs of many of the major health providers across the north. Typically the health industry does not imagine itself as a business; so CHIC’s role is to look at the health & allied industries sector through a business lens, borrowing on lessons learnt in other sectors. Topics under the microscope include skilled staff attraction, supply-chain mapping, just to name a few.

For as long as anyone can remember, CHIC and others have been advocating for the co-location of the Launceston Calvary (Private) Hospital with LGH. Wherever co-locations have happened elsewhere, the outcomes have been unrelentingly positive. So yesterday’s announcement that the Tasmanian Government has completed an MoU with Calvary (as promised during the recent election cycle); has paved the way for a $120M co-located hospital with LGH with land in Frankland Street allocated to the project under the MoU.  Obviously, there’s a long way to go, but this is great news all ‘round.

• It adds to the pile of construction and infrastructure builds in the North that will keep the construction industry in work for years to come. That creates demand for apprenticeship schemes, which filters down into school -> employment pathways. Estimates are (aggregate) 1400 jobs in construction from this project.
• It creates demand and positions for Health & Allied workers; one of the hardest sectors to recruit for; especially by creating new roles for specialists across a variety of health disciplines. That gives rise to Population Attraction schemes where we will seek to attract and retain skilled professionals to the region, which in turn adds to economic activity in the North.
• It allows load-balancing between Public & Private health patients which ideally frees up public beds for those patients unable to access the private system
• It offers the opportunity to cooperate on critical services. Areas such as the public ED, radiology and intensive care benefit from co-location, by improving the economy of scale, funding, and ultimately the overall number of specialist doctors and nurses available.
• All of which creates better health outcomes for Launceston and the North.

Note: The announcement comes on the heels of the LGH masterplan which was released for public commentary. You can have your say here : https://www.health.tas.gov.au/about_the_department/infrastructure_services

If the pandemic has taught us anything, its that complacency will bring you unstuck eventually. Just ask your colleagues in Victoria at the moment. But for a moment, I want to introduce the notion of complacency around Cyber-Risk. There’s a reason they call them computer viruses… they’re contagious, easily and imperceptibly passed on, they’re hard to eradicate and they make your business feel rotten

Cyber-risk is real. Just look to JBS Meat processing at Longford. As we write hundreds of Tasmanian employees are stood down through no fault of their own while JBS deals with a global scale event. The local ramifications are huge, employees stood down, animals needing temporary relocation, transport stoppages and local supply lines affected.

BY now, a year into the pandemic, we’ve come to expect that businesses have a COVID-19 Safety plan, and also COVID  outbreak containment plan. Transfer that same thinking to your Cyber Risk profile. Do you have similar plans in place? Are you ready for a cyber ‘event’ out-of-the-blue?

• Do you KNOW how to recognise an outbreak and contain it if (when) it occurs? What about your staff, do they know?
• Do you have a culture where reporting potential risks is encouraged? I once had a client whose staff member feared reporting when they’d clicked on a bd link in an email, for fear of losing their job over it. Had the event been reported earlier, we could’ve saved a lot of grief.
• Do you have a bullet-proof data protection strategy in place. I used to counsel clients with a simple plan : 3 copies of the data, stored in 2 different formats and 1 copy off-site and disconnected from everything. 3-2-1 and you could recover from almost anything…. Got anything. Like that setup?

Our post COVID economic recovery is dependent upon business prospering. That’s self-evident, and if business recovery is to continue, it MUST therefore be digital-resilient. A business halted because it’s been shut down by a cyber event, is of little use to anybody – its owner, it’s patrons or the community in general. So a cyber-risk plan is needed for all businesses – large & small.

The Chamber is working with Gold Member The Project Lab to help shape their Cyber-Up Program. Take a look at the program and we encourage businesses in Launceston with less than 199 employees to register their interest. We’re also working with TAS Tafe to assist with shaping their Cyber Risk training courses within their IT streams, ensuring that graduates are real-world work-ready; with skills to match.

And.. we have many Quality IT providers within the Chamber membership that can assist with developing your Cyber Risk management plans. Pick up the phone and get them working for you. Do nothing, and be assured, complacency will do you in, sooner or later.

Eaglecrest Technologies
The Project Lab
AQ Advisory
Another IT Group
Launceston IT
Link Technologies Tasmania

In yesterday’s Examiner there is an excellent editorial with the headline Countries race ahead of Australia. This headline dragged me in, and I was soon reading about the mixed-messages we as a nation are receiving about COVID-19 vaccinations. The headline though, got me thinking, if we consider a different topic, the headline could easily be changed to States race ahead of Tasmania. The topic I have in mind? Start-Ups and Scale-Ups.  

Northern Tasmania offers the Start-Up and Scale-Up business communities a number of benefits, whether it be the affordable cost of living (as Start-ups put everything into their business), reliable and fast internet (especially if you’re with Gold Chamber Member Launtel) access or the excellent facilities for open-plan working at Enterprize. However, we also let our Start-Ups and Scale-Ups down on several fronts, particularly:

• Facilities and co-working space when privacy is required.
• Access to mentors and venture-capitalists.
• Access to a Start-Up Eco-system
• Access to a Chief Entrepreneur.

Queensland and South Australia both have an Office of the Chief Entrepreneur (Queensland are currently recruiting a new Chief Entrepreneur), and both are enjoying the immense benefits of supporting the Start-Up, Scale-Up and Entrepreneurial Communities. The Office of the Chief Entrepreneur in Queensland has developed a Precinct which brings together start-ups, incubators, investors, and mentors under one roof which also accommodates a 250-seat stadium which allows entrepreneurs and start-ups to host events. Can you imagine the economic benefits a development like this could bring to Tasmania? Launceston is the perfect place for it!

The Office of the Chief Entrepreneur in South Australia stimulates the entrepreneurial eco-system from school student to start-up to those seeking a new business. In February when Amazon announced it will be expanding its presence in South Australia, South Australian Premier Stephen Paterson MP, said “Not only will Amazon create more jobs for South Australians, the company will grow its innovation programs to support local companies, from start-ups to bigger businesses… The decision by Amazon to invest here is proof that South Australia is a major drawcard to international companies across high-tech and high-growth sectors…”

These states are leading the way, but Tasmania should not be last. We think its time for a Tasmanian Chief Entrepreneur. With the State Election behind us, now is the time. But let’s not just ‘keep up’, its time we got ahead!

The state election is run and won; and the budget has been delivered. Time to get back to business…

Our congratulations to the Gutwein government on their return to majority government last night. With that in hand, we’re looking forward to updates on a number of the election promises delivered over the 5 weeks or so of the election cycle. Tasmania’s continued Post-COVID recovery requires a deft hand, and an iron will. It feels like we’ve got those in place; we’re doing well, but there’s a long way to go yet. With certainty; repairs can continue.

We’re yet to form a solid opinion on the tangible value of the Federal budget for Tasmania in general, and Launceston specifically. There’s plenty of budget analysis out there for reading; we’d commend economist Saul Eslake’s analysis to you and we’ve noted a few links below …so we won’t parrot those here. Safe to say though, the devil is in the details. It’s a big-spending statement of confidence in the future of the country, and probably the budget that had to be delivered, but some of the projected deficit and debt numbers are breathtaking. It’s the second budget from this Treasurer that no longer seeks fiscal prudence and surpluses as a primary objective, instead recognising the role of Government in post-COVID economic recovery. Budget repair will have to wait awhile.

For more on the Budget, take a look at some of our Members’ budget analysis:

Newton & Henry

MDH Accounting and Business Advisors

Deloitte