Last week in Canberra we watched with interest the two-day Jobs and skills summit. Many viewed this as an opportunity to reset our national direction and position ourselves for greater productivity and clearer industrial instruments for businesses and unions to navigate. Many of the businesses we talk to agree that wage growth is welcomed however, it will always need to be achieved with sustained productivity growth, and that requires innovation and smarter ways of working. We will view with interest the subsequent outcomes and policies that follow this Summit and especially the proposal of multiemployer bargaining and its potential negative impacts on many parts of business. It appears in the first instance some good progress has been made and further details will be required with industry and businesses fully involved. Hence ensuring future systems do not increase complexity and rigidity that could stifle creativity.
It is always a pleasure to hear about our members progress. During the week we received a presentation from Erin Van Noort, Albemarle’s Public Liaison Officer on its potential expansion opportunities. This included plans to establish a village in the Binnignup area to support the workers required for train 3 & 4. This village proposal in itself is over $70M and would involve accommodations, restaurants, wellness and leisure facilities. As a responsible corporate citizen they are keen to minimise disruption to local communities and a significant consultation process has started and will continue to engage a wide scope of stakeholders.
On Wednesday this week we teamed up with the Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance to host Southern Ports presentation of their Bunbury Port Master Plan. The success of our port and it’s critical ability to import and export is growing year on year. Last year we witnessed the largest export volumes on record with over 17 million tonnes of product shipped from the Bunbury port. The team from Southern Ports shared these future opportunities while emphasising the needs of the community and the sustainability options available. We encourage everyone to read this report which can be found on their website illustrating the exciting future this critical part of infrastructure will play.
It was so pleasing to see so many of our members this week attend the Business After Hours with feature business Moshi Moshi. These networking events are so rich in their connection opportunities and allow businesses to share and learn from each other. We are so fortunate to have a web developer such as Karl and his team at Moshi Moshi in our region. They understand business needs and can also embroil such creative interfaces for our customers to experience products and services on offer. We encourage all our members to attend these events and engage that curiosity of what others are doing to spark opportunities for ourselves.
As a Chamber we are always seeking ways and opportunities to improve our services for our valued members. Over this coming month as we head towards the AGM in October, we will be reviewing our strategic intent and ways of working as an Executive and Chamber team. We will be consulting with many of you and look forward to seeing how we can become more efficient and effective as an organisation and ultimately providing enhanced services to you our valued members.
Safe Trading,
Danny Griffin
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