President’s Report

As we move into the new financial year, we have a golden opportunity to reappraise our position as an industry and lay down the foundations for continuing success in the future.

That well-worn phrase, “The new normal” is especially meaningful to us now as our industry prepares to face significant challenges in the next few years. With a united voice and a shared purpose, we can ensure that Security companies in Australia maintain and even grow their business in a rapidly changing world. The past financial year has been remarkable for the Security Industry, in particular the way we have adapted to constantly changing conditions imposed by COVID. The industry has shown itself to be resilient, resourceful and creative which has contributed to continuity of services and a steady income stream for the majority of the industry. This has been due in very large part to the energy and effort of the out-going ASIAL President, Kevin McDonald, who has devoted over 20 years voluntarily to ASIAL and the industry. As I move from my previous role as Vice-President to President of ASIAL, I acknowledge Kevin’s efforts and accomplishments and thank him on behalf of our industry for his years of service. Despite the rigours of 2020-21, the industry has made important gains. At one level, we created a new Code of Practice for the vexed area of Subcontracting, tightening up practices and setting ourselves up to deliver services to clients at a higher standard, irrespective of local regulatory regimes in various states or territories. We also helped develop a new national standard in Monitoring Centre Management (AS2201.2), which for the first time included cyber and risk management, which are both core considerations in today’s security management. The industry has been conducting a never-ending campaign in the halls of government Australia-wide in pursuit of an even playing field in regulation. As we all know, we work in a patchwork quilt of varying regulatory standards across state borders. This often means excessive costs in insurance for example, for security operators who work across borders. It gives rise to inconsistencies in service delivery from state to state and is a source of frustration for many security companies. The Automatic Mutual Recognition Amendment, which passed the Federal Parliament in June 2021, could have been a major step forward in achieving continuity and consistency across state borders. Or at least it would, if some States and Territories had not determined in advance that they would claim exemption from it. Their argument – that inconsistencies in regulatory standards makes their own state vulnerable to cross-border operators working in their state – highlights what ASIAL has been telling governments for 20 years. It graphically demonstrates that all governments in Australia must put aside their own narrow self-interest and work as a team to adopt nationally consistent regulatory standards. This way we can deliver uniformly high standards in security services for clients across Australia. Sadly, the states and territories do not yet share this point of view and the work continues to convince all parties of the benefits to industry and indeed the nation from a Team-Australia approach. On a higher level, for the first time, the industry investigated in 2020-21 how people outside the industry viewed security in the context of their own lives. We have developed our understanding of the public’s priorities with respect to their personal and professional safety. The inaugural Australian Security Confidence Index, commissioned by ASIAL and conducted by Nielsen IQ, set the benchmark for us to work from in making the clever country feel more and more like the safe country too. It will be revealing to conduct the survey again in 2022 and measure how far we have moved the needle in terms of creating a sense of increased security in the hearts of Australians. This will be an important challenge for our industry in the coming year. It was saddening to see a negative element creep into the discourse from within our own ranks, including social media, during the past year. When the industry stands to gain so much from a united voice, dissent, especially dissent for dissent’s sake, only weakens our collective strength and makes us doubt ourselves. Now more than ever, it is crucial that the industry stand united and take collective ownership of the objectives before us. The Security 2025 project lays out in detail the key issues confronting the industry’s prosperity in coming years. As the name suggests, Security 2025 identifies the coming challenges to be met to ensure the industry is set up for success in a fast-changing world. Security 2025 is the base platform on which the ASIAL Board will proceed. It frames the chief initiatives to be rolled out in next few years and informs the priorities, budgets and personnel to be allocated to achieving those near-term goals. The report is comprehensive and I will not detail it here. The key elements are: 1. Equipping the industry with the skilled personnel and technical expertise to deliver value-added advice and services to clients, particularly in the area of cyber security 2. Repositioning the industry in the minds of customers and the public at large as a central member of Australia’s

Frontline Security Team 3. And as part of the points above, taking immediate steps to secure a skilled labour supply to equip the industry to deliver increasing levels of service and personnel in a world that will need more security – not less.

We must prioritise recruitment of skilled personnel right now – not just to satisfy current needs but to ensure we can meet future demand. To do this, we must make Security an attractive career choice for new entrants to the labour market. To that end, we are developing a communication strategy designed to highlight the appeal of a job in security with a real career path that can attract desirable salaries and exposure to exciting career opportunities. Increasing apprenticeships, especially in electronics, presents younger workers with an attractive career path and adds tangible value to the industry. On a larger scale, it is a meaningful way for the industry to make a genuinely valuable contribution to the Australian economy. We should also address the long-overdue issue of encouraging women to enter the security industry. The traditional model of ‘big boys’ occupying security jobs does not have meaning any more in the 21st century, considering the diversity and increasing levels of technical sophistication in the industry. The opportunity here is to update the industry’s image and make ourselves more meaningful and more attractive in the broader recruitment spectrum. But this is something that ASIAL cannot do alone. It will take an allof-industry approach to deliver meaningful outcomes in the critically important recruitment space and we will roll out an initiative to achieve that during the coming financial year. I wish to point out that this difficult year, more than most years, the ASIAL Secretariat has gone above and beyond the call of duty and has continued to deliver valuable results for the industry. It is easy and even fashionable to pin the industry’s problems on the hard-working people in our Secretariat. But knowing them as I do, I can state categorically that CEO Bryan de Caires and his team deliver for the industry every day and we too often take them for granted. I take this occasion to acknowledge and thank them. Even more importantly, it is appropriate that all of us in the industry give ourselves a well-earned pat on the back for achieving growth in our sector, delivering more to our clients with less and making a significant, albeit sometimes overlooked contribution to Australia’s ongoing success.

John Gellel President ASIAL

With a united voice and a shared purpose, we can ensure that Security companies in Australia maintain and even grow their business in a rapidly changing world.