Executive update Welcome to October Groundswell. Spring has arrived, traditionally our industry’s busiest time of year. We appreciate that for many of our members, particularly our retailers, the prolonged trading restrictions will be having a significant impact on your business, and indeed your, and your teams, wellbeing.
Simon Gomme President, NGIV
Craig Taberner CEO, NGIV
We want to reassure you that NGIV are continuing to advocate for the early reopening of retail garden centres across Victoria. We have ongoing dialogue with key staff within the office for the Minister of Agriculture and Minister for Small Business and submitted a detailed report that highlighted the low-risk environment, economic impact, and support for Victorians mental health and wellbeing, which our retail garden centres provide. NGIV have also engaged with the Bunnings Group to consider a collaborative approach towards advocacy for retail garden centres, Agriculture Victoria to ensure they are kept aware of the situation, our lobbyist to inform our strategy for advocacy on the matter and the Small Business Recovery Committee with Minister for Small Business the Hon Jaala Pulford MLC. We will continue to provide a voice for our retail members and on behalf of the NGIV Board, team and members, we all hope you're back to doing what you do best soon. The NGIV has been selected to participate in the Small Business Wellbeing Program as an industry impacted by COVID-19. The Program will provide direct specialist wellbeing and mental health support to our members through the engagement of a mental health specialist. This service, available to all NGIV Full Members, their staff and families. Whilst there’s no expectation to use the service, we feel it is
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a great additional member benefit in these challenging times. All we ask is that you make your team and colleagues aware of the offering. Given the difficulty of this moment, we’d like to once again thank our Industry Partners for their ongoing support. Our partners lead the way in delivering excellence; executing plans and delivering projects that permeate and benefit the entire industry. As an industry we are collectively indebted to them and the work they do; that’s why we would ask you to seek out opportunities to show them your support. We’re delighted that Ball Australia and Bio Gro have upgraded to Platinum Partners. A big thank you to Transplant Systems, Sidekicker and SureGro TreeMax, for upgrading to Silver Partners. And a big welcome to JD Propagation and DNA Training Solutions, who became Bronze Partners. Visit page 28 to find out more. We’d like to encourage any member businesses that are looking to recruit and upskill trainees or apprentices to contact our preferred Apprentice Network Provider (ANP), MEGT. They will guide you through the process of selecting the appropriate training course and claiming government incentives, including the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) wage subsidy, which provides eligible employers with a wage subsidy of up to 50% of the gross wages of an apprentice or trainee for up to 12 months – up to $28,000. The wage subsidy represents a fantastic opportunity for NGIV Members to upskill their workforce with a significant saving. Any business that engages an Australian Apprentice between 5 October 2020 and 31 March 2022 may be eligible for a subsidy up to $7,000 per quarter and there’s no cap on the number of eligible trainees/apprentices. A number of our
