TODAY the Turnbull Government and Naval Group Australia confirmed that 126 local businesses to date have been pre-qualified as eligible to take part in the supply chain for the $50 billion Future Submarine Program.

Over the last 12 months, these businesses have been thoroughly assessed and deemed as capable of delivering the quality products, parts or services needed to deliver this vital project.

Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne MP, said that this clearly shows the Government is setting a cracking pace in ensuring maximum Australian industry involvement, generating jobs and driving economic growth across the country in this flagship program.

“These Australian businesses that have passed the rigorous screening process are now able to bid for Future Submarine tenders for parts such as batteries, motors, pumps and many others as they are announced,” Mr Pyne said.   

“The Future Submarine program will create 2800 jobs, but also many more thousands in the supply chain across the country in businesses such as these.

“This is just the beginning for Australian businesses becoming eligible to take part in this and our other naval shipbuilding projects.

“The Government fully expects many hundreds of Australians businesses to be part of the supply chain of our locally built Future Submarines, Future Frigates, Offshore Patrol Vessels and Pacific Patrol Boats,” he said.   

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THE Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the announcement by Adani Chairman Gautam Adani to start construction on the company’s Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland in October.

Queensland Resources Council, Chief Executive, Ian Macfarlane said: "The decision comes at a time when parts of regional Queensland are experiencing high levels of unemployment and I congratulate Adani on its ongoing commitment to source contracts locally and the company’s leading diversity targets for indigenous employment and participation.

"Adani have had a clear objective on working with local suppliers to maximise the opportunities for regional Queensland right from day one.

"The first phase of construction will be the Carmichael mine camp with a first coal shipment target of March 2020. Once operational, the Galilee Basin mine will generate $185 million in royalties per annum, which at today’s coal prices would pay for 2,900 extra nurses or 3,350 extra police officers or 3,400 extra teachers.

"In addition, this mine will provide a reliable, high-energy, low-emission fuel and deliver electricity to some of the 300 million Indians without power."

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VICTORIA’s population growth leads the country, with Melbourne having a population of 4.5 million in a total of 6 million. The key to liveability in the face of such rapid growth is better connectivity and environmental and social sustainability.

With this in mind, the Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities will visit Melbourne as part of its inquiry into the Australian Government’s role in the development of cities. The Committee will inspect a number of environmentally and socially sustainable developments and speak to industry experts, businesses and academics about how population increases can be accommodated without impacting liveability.

Committee Chair, John Alexander OAM MP, said the inquiry has a dual focus on enhancing and adapting existing capital and regional cities, as well as investigating the possible benefits of developing new regional centres.

“We are looking at how we can rebalance our population between major cities and regional areas,” said Mr Alexander.

“This may involve improving the infrastructure and connectivity of existing regional centres to entice people away from capital cities like Melbourne. Or it may be that developing brand new regional centres offers greater opportunity to accommodate a larger Australia in a sustainable manner.

“We’re examining opportunities for the Commonwealth Government to provide leadership in this area.”

Professor Peter Newton of Swinburne University suggested that population decentralisation is unlikely to succeed without better linkages between capital cities and regional centres.

“Traditional 20th century policies focussed on attempts to create new basic industries or relocate federal or state government offices will not succeed,” he submitted.

“Twenty-first century agglomeration economies favour large cities and will continue to do so until provincial cities become part of a functional mega-metropolitan region centres on a major capital city…”

Public hearing details: 9.00 am – 3.10 pm, Tuesday 29 August 2017, Room G3, Parliamentary Annex, Parliament of Victoria

9.00 am– 9.40 am: SGS Economics and Planning
9.40 am – 10.20 am: Centre for Urban Research RMIT
10.40 am – 11.10 am: Professor Peter Newton
11.10 am – 11.50 am: National Transport Commission
11.50 am – 12.30 pm: National Growth Areas Alliance
1.20 pm – 1.50 pm: Associate Professor Hussein Dia
1.50 pm – 2.30 pm: University of Melbourne
2.30 pm – 3.10 pm: City of Melbourne
3.10: Close

The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live

Further information on the inquiry, including the full terms of reference, is available on the Committee website.

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THE Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, has challenged banks to become leaders in ethical business practice.

Speaking at the National Small Business Summit in Melbourne, Ms Carnell said trust in banks had been eroded and must be restored.

In her speech, Ms Carnell also:

• Welcomed the big-four banks’ commitment to eliminate unfair terms from small business contracts; and
• Encouraged the growth of alternative lending to improve access to capital.

Corporate regulator ASIC confirmed this week that banks have agreed to implement fairer contracts for small business customers that include important protections.

Banks will no longer be able to unilaterally vary contracts, and unfair clauses such as the banks’ power to default or terminate a loan for an unspecified negative change in circumstances, have been removed.

Ms Carnell said compliance with unfair contract terms legislation and improvements to the banking code of practice had been key recommendations from her 2016 small business loans inquiry.

“Banks can no longer use their market power and their hundreds of lawyers to move all risk to the small business borrower,” she said.

“A fair contract is one where risk is shared and it is clear who bears what risk, and neither party has the power to change that balance unilaterally.

“Historically the banks have required small businesses to sign contracts that have given them the power to change the fundamentals of contracts, interest rates, the amount lent and repayment times, without the agreement of the other party.

“The agreement that ASIC and ASBFEO have reached with the big four banks has changed that.”

Ms Carnell called on the major banks to demonstrate industry leadership in embracing best practice.

“Hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of the financial services sector and their support to small business,” she said.

Ms Carnell repeated her call for the contract safeguards to apply to small business total loan facilities up to $5 million. The legislation requires compliance up to $1 million and the big four banks have agreed to $3 million.

“We’ll be talking to the government, opposition, crossbench MPs and the banks about raising the threshold to $5 million, which is appropriate for capital intensive small businesses and family enterprises such as farms,” she said.

Ms Carnell also endorsed efforts to increase competition in the financial services sector.

“Peter Costello was right when he said on the weekend that access to capital is too restrictive for business and that Australian bank business lending is negligible,” she said.

“Banks are geared towards residential property, which inflates the housing market at the cost of stifling small business investment

“Unless a small business has adequate property as security they have very limited access to finance through traditional banks.

“On a positive note, the alternative finance sector is growing and the government has indicated it wants to reduce barriers to entry.”

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