I cannot emphasis enough the importance Australian small businesses have on the Australian economy. Currently throughout Australia, the construction and housing supply chain has helped bring the country out of recession and your voice has never been more important than now.
As a former lobbyist, I was well aware politicians prefer to hear directly from the horse’s mouth, rather than a paid mouthpiece. These paid mouth pieces are extremely important for industry and lobby groups such as HIA, MBA, AFPA and others have worked tirelessly throughout this pandemic to help our industry.
But now it’s time for you to engage with your local State and Federal Members of Parliament, so you can let them know, firsthand how their policies are impacting your business as your voice is the most important voice.
Take HomeBuilder for example, it is an amazing program which has been attributed to the current housing boom, but improvements can be made. If we are to have long term stability then things need to slow down. If more time is given to complete jobs under the program or even extended over a longer period, then we will reduce the risk of an ugly bubble bursting which could have a devastating impact on our industry.
FTMA Australia is extremely proud to once again team up with MGA TMA, TABMA & TTIA to develop a Lobbying Paper for all our members. The paper will focus on 6 key issues such as:
- HomeBuilder – fantastic, but how can we slow things down.
- Difficulty in finding employees – more incentives required.
- Optimisation – helping our members increase efficiency and productivity.
- Benefits of using wood with Social and NDIS Housing to address environmental issues.
- Recognising timber harvesting, sawmilling and the supply chain as essential so we don’t see more confusion like mills closing in South Australia or fabricators closing in Victoria.
- Maximising the use of timber resource
The paper is currently being prepared and will be distributed to members of the four Associations next week. In the meantime, however, we ask all members to contact their state and federal members of parliament to invite them to visit your business in March. FTMA has a spreadsheet showing the State & Federal Member for every fabricator in Australia, so if anyone needs contact details please give me a call or email.
FTMA, along with the other Associations will send the Lobbying Paper to all State, Territory & Federal leaders including relevant Ministers, however, we encourage members to hand a copy of the document to your local members when they visit.
Together, our voice is loud, and our message is clear. We look forward to assisting members in contacting their members of parliament.
Kersten Gentle
Gold Sponsors
