TODAY’S announcement that Indian miner Adani’s $22 billion Carmichael coal, railway and port project will be based in Townsville and begin construction from early 2017 is overwhelmingly positive news for regional Queensland, the state and the nation.
 
“After spending years obtaining the appropriate approvals, mining leases, demonstrating its commitment to environmental management and fighting continuous and often mischievous legal challenges, today’s strong progress on Adani’s Carmichael coal project is warmly welcomed by Australia’s resource industry,” says AMMA chief executive Steve Knott.
 
“This project is expected to inject 500 new jobs into regional Queensland in its first phase, create up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout its construction period, and employ an ongoing workforce of 4,500 during its long-term production phase.
 
“New multi-billion dollar mining projects are an extreme rarity in the challenging economic conditions currently facing resource operators globally. In recent years more than $160bn worth of potential resources projects have been dropped from consideration in Australia, almost half of which was flagged for Queensland.
 
“Adani’s Carmichael project will be much more than a short-term boost for Queensland’s economy. With an operating life of up to 90 years, it will create opportunities for small business and provide taxation and royalties that will fund schools, hospitals and other community infrastructure for almost a century.”
 
AMMA notes that despite obtaining almost all approvals needed to begin construction, and complying with more 200 environmental conditions, efforts are still underway by minority activist and community groups to derail the project through continuous court challenges, appeals and protests.
 
Mr Knott says Australia can learn from the excessive and unnecessary costs and delays in getting the Carmichael project to its pre-construction phase, in seeking to improve our processes for assessing and approving future job-creating developments.
 
“It is not missed that as most of the country celebrates one of very few new major resource projects in Australia coming closer to fruition, there are ongoing strategies by vocal minority activist groups to frustrate and stall the project through Australia’s courts,” he says.
 
“While nobody should be denied their right to legally and responsibly object to a development on legitimate grounds, the continuous legal activism known as ‘lawfare’ seen in the Adani case is counter-productive to our nation securing future projects and the community benefits they bring.
 
“The irony of the anti-coal brigade is that Australia supplying developing nations such as Indian with their coal energy needs is not only good for our economy and jobs, but ultimately better for global CO2 emissions  due to the cleaner burning properties of Australia’s high quality thermal coal.
 
“In doing so, Australia is also strengthening our relationship with one of our most important emerging international trade partners, and doing our part in helping bring billions of people out of poverty.”

www.amma.org.au

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THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities has today presented its report, Harnessing Value, Delivering Infrastructure, on the role of transport connectivity in stimulating development and economic activity in urban areas and regional Australia.

The Committee has recommended development of value capture mechanisms as a means of funding new transport infrastructure and the development of high speed rail to facilitate new patterns of settlement in Australia.

Committee Chair Mr John Alexander MP says the effective planning and development of transport infrastructure in our major cities and regions would optimise not just our potential for growth but also quality of life and cost of housing.

“We should give effect to urban renewal and densification while rebalancing the pattern of settlement through strategic decentralisation,” Mr Alexander says. “The key to this is high speed rail funded by value capture.”

The Committee has also recommended:

• developing a framework for the specification and evaluation of proposals for the development of a High Speed Rail Network in Eastern Australia
• investigating options for private funding of High Speed Rail through value capture
• the monitoring and investigation of other technological innovations for transport connectivity
• recognising the potential contribution towards the costs of new transport infrastructure of value capture
• developing a system for coordinating the planning and funding of major infrastructure projects across all levels of government
• coordinated procurement of vehicles and rolling stock for transport infrastructure
• establishing value capture mechanisms for individual transport infrastructure projects as a condition of federal funding
• developing a toolkit of value capture mechanisms that can be applied by all levels of government
• continued roll-out of City Deal-type agreements with the various state, territory and local governments
• developing a consistent and coordinated approach to the application of value-capture to major infrastructure projects, with the Australian Government acting as the single-point for the collection of value capture revenues.

A copy of the report can be obtained from the Committee’s website or from the secretariat on (02) 6277 2352.

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GLOBAL political unrest and change may place further strain on Australia’s economic position, according to the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA).

“Australia faces a tremendous economic challenge as we position ourselves in an increasingly competitive region,” said IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway speaking at the launch of the IPA Deakin SME Research Centre recently.

“The emergence of the Trump government in America comes with uncertainty over current and future free trade agreements which may impact on our international relationships with other countries.

“And I am sure that discussions around Brexit will shortly shift to ‘Brentry’; as in, which markets the UK will seek to enter.

“Australia is uniquely placed to influence trade and investment opportunities in new markets.

“Critical to this will be whether small business has the confidence to employ and to explore. Employing more people and exploring new markets will help ensure small business owners, their families and our communities are in a position to seize the growth potential.

“However, this cannot happen with a blind expectation that government has the capacity to solve these problems and lay these policy foundations in isolation. 

“Our stagnating productivity growth as a nation threatens our quality of life. One of the critical levers that government and industry must acknowledge and trigger is to unleash productive capabilities of small business.

“Our job is to think big and back that up with reasoned and sound evidence and that is the role of our SME research centre

“However, research is not an end in itself; it is an enabler. Research is about building a seminal body of evidence to support a proposition. Our proposition is how do we turn Australia into the best place in the world to start, run and grow a small business?

“Our vision for the research centre is that it becomes the credible voice for small business. That policy makers continue to come to us first for advice as a sounding board and we get it right,” said Mr Conway.

About the Institute of Public Accountants

The IPA, formed in 1923, is one of Australia’s three legally recognised professional accounting bodies.  In late 2014, the IPA acquired the Institute of Financial Accountants in the UK and formed the IPA Group, with more than with more than 35,000 members and students in over 80 countries.  The IPA Group is the largest SME focused accountancy organisation in the world. The IPA is a member of the International Federation of Accountants, the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board and the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants.  The IPA was recognised in 2012 as Australia’s most innovative accounting organisation and listed in the top 20 in the 2012 BRW Most Innovative Companies List.  

publicaccountants.org.au

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A CAMPAIGN calling for all Australian businesses to pay their bills on time has been launched today by the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA), the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Peter Strong, CEO, COSBOA; Innes Willox, CEO, Ai Group and John Brogden, MD and CEO, AICD, claim that Australia’s business sector has developed a culture of paying invoices well past the internationally accepted 30 day standard.

This campaign calls upon the CEOs of Australia’s major companies to take the lead and make a public statement that their company will be paying on 30 day terms by June 2018.

Mr. Strong  commented that while small businesses form the backbone of the economy and are often the fountain of innovation, the lifeblood of small business is cash flow.

“Not many people are aware of how entrenched this behaviour has become in our business world. It has become increasingly more common for a 90 day payment frame to be included in B2B contracts. In some cases this has extended out as far as 120 days,” he said.

“This behaviour has even extended to the payment of individual contractors who, in some cases, are now facing 60 day payment terms. I Individual contractors, unlike B2B payments, often rely on this money to live, to pay mortgages and to put food on the table. In these instances, late payments can have a huge impact.”

The joint campaign comes as Kate Carnell,  Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, launches an inquiry into the payment times and practices for B2B payments.

AICD MD & CEO John Brogden said it was time to change this culture of late payment that has become predominant in Australian businesses. 

”Best practice in governance demands that businesses pay on time. Without surety of cash flow it is hard for any business to achieve strong and consistent performance,” he said.

“I believe there is a common desire to fix this problem and for all Australian businesses to pay on time, every time.”

Ai Group CEO Innes Willox said the call for 30 day payment terms was also supported by Australian regulators.

"We should all be getting behind this campaign. Paying on time is the right and fair thing to do," he said.

For more information visit: http://www.cosboa.org.au/blog/pay-on-time-send-your-supporting-statement/

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