What's happening at Consult Australia
Advocacy Highlights Head of Policy and Government Relations
Kristy Eulenstein I like to think that policy is the ultimate ‘challenge defining’ opportunity, where you get to re-think old paradigms, be solutionsfocussed, and find a way to improve the future. Advocacy is putting a voice to that process. Already 2022 has demonstrated how Consult Australia’s voice is needed to ensure government policy doesn’t slip into entrenching past problems. To kick-off the year we released our Federal Election 2022 Priorities and our Pre-Budget Submission and have had interest from government Ministers as well as Shadow Ministers on our proposed solutions, including Minister Dutton’s Office. Knowing the capacity constraints are biting businesses of all sizes, we have been busy meeting with the Department of Home Affairs and the industry outreach officers that specialise in the infrastructure sector and in the Global Talent Program. We will be sharing contact details via Latest News on our website if you are looking at employeesponsored visas. We also continue our engagement with the National Skills Commission on priority occupations. We know that the collapse of Probuild has impacted some of our members – please contact me if it has. In response we have been increasing our pressure on government, including through the media, calling for reform to how construction operates in Australia (whether it be through government procurement or private investment).
10 Consulting Matters
We had a very positive meeting with the Office of the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman – who has been championing insurance issues and understands how the market pressures lead to such collapses. We also maintain our strong relationships with the insurance industry to help our advocacy. In addition to all of that, we’ve managed to make several written submissions on: National Mental Health Commission’s National Workplace Initiative – Theory of Change and Evaluation, Commonwealth Treasury – ACL Consumer Guarantees, National Workplace Skills Priority List and Productivity Commission’s Productivity Inquiry. 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 Highlights, Roundtable Round-Up and Spotlight on Government Forums. n
