What's happening at Consult Australia
Advocacy Highlights Head of Policy and Government Relations
Kristy Eulenstein In this edition, I’ve got a pretty easy job to ‘showcase’ our advocacy work over the last quarter – it’s been hectic but hopefully something in here for everyone. We were pleased to see the Federal Budget reflect some of our Pre-Budget Submission including announcements across our 4 priority areas: • Practice – measures to provide business support • People – measures on skills, education and migration • Procurement – reforms to improve small business access to Commonwealth procurement opportunities • Pipeline – investment in infrastructure, energy and resources. Of course, our wish list was longer, but it was positive to see some of our priority areas in the Budget, and we will be advocating to see these reflected in the new Government's Budget too. Remember you can still access our Federal Budget Summary for more information. The Final Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Procurement Practices for Government-Funded Infrastructure was published, with Consult Australia being quoted heavily throughout the almost 200page report, with over 80 mentions of us on risk, civil liability reforms and go slow to go fast. See later in this edition for a summary of our advocacy wins.
8 Consulting Matters
Thanks to those members that completed our Industry Health Check, Pulse Survey in April/May. Please see Latest News on our website for the results report. Unsurprisingly in the current market, most responses nominated staff wages as the biggest business expense, followed closely by the cost of professional indemnity insurance. These two areas were also expected to have the biggest impact on the business in the next six months. As in previous surveys, the increase to the insurance premium experienced by different businesses varied considerably, but most responses indicated a premium increase of between 11-30%. These results are valuable to the team in our advocacy around the country, especially in terms of the need to de-risk the market and to think smarter about skills. We’ve also made submissions to the Department of Home Affairs on free trade agreement negotiations (stressing skills issues and business barriers) and to Infrastructure Australia on its Delivering Outcomes and Regional Strengths and Infrastructure Gaps reports. Copies of all our submissions are available on our website here. This is just a quick overview of our activity at the Commonwealth level, remember to watch our Policy Pulse videos, and find out more about what we are doing at the local level from the team below. See also later in this issue our Small Business Spotlight and the Summary of our Productivity Inquiry Submission.
