Chief Executive Mark Stone’s comments on the Alcoa announcement:

"It is disappointing to hear today’s announcement as Alcoa has made a significant contribution to the Victorian economy, especially in the Geelong region, for many years.

"We welcome Alcoa’s commitment to helping its employees transition and urge governments at all levels to work with Alcoa and its contractors, suppliers and community partners to minimise the impact of the closure of the Point Henry smelter.

"While the Alcoa decision is a blow to Geelong, we remain confident that the region can remain competitive given its economic diversity and strengths in tourism, health, education, biotechnology, food and horticulture, research and advanced manufacturing."

The Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) is the peak body for employers in Victoria, informing and servicing more than 15,000 members, customers and clients around the state.

www.vecci.org.au

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BUSINESSES of all sizes are backing the City of Sydney’s new Economic Development Strategy, praising the 10-year plan to keep Sydney at the forefront of the Australian economy.

The draft strategy reveals the City of Sydney’s economic output was estimated at over $100 billion in 2011–2012 - almost a quarter of the NSW economy and seven per cent of the Australian economy.

Submissions from major business groups including the Sydney Business Chamber, Tourism and Transport Forum, AMP Capital and smaller groups like the Pyrmont/Ultimo Chamber of Commerce and the Newtown Precinct Business Associations, have welcomed the strategy.

The groups have written submissions supporting the City’s work to ensure Sydney remains the premier place in Australia to live, work and visit.

They also praised the City’s leadership role in engaging and promoting business and in analysing emerging issues that keep Sydney’s economy flourishing.

Business groups also said they want the City to continue to engage with the sector and proceed with development of an Asia Action Plan to quantify the importance of this rapidly growing market.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the past five years of withstanding the worst of the global financial crisis while adding nearly 2,000 new businesses proved Sydney’s resilience.

“Cities around the world compete for ideas, investment and talented people and our economic strategy is designed to ensure Sydney wins that competition,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Sydney is the leading knowledge-based economy in Australia, home to Australia’s largest and most globally-connected finance and insurance district and home to the country’s largest digital community.

“We are determined to build on our great record. The City is investing $1.9 billion in a 10-year infrastructure program that includes $220 million for the transformation of George Street. In the southern part of the City, we’re investing $440 million building a new town centre at Green Square.”

There are 437,000 jobs within the City of Sydney, with 173,000 of them - almost 40 per cent - in the finance and professional services areas.

The Economic Development Strategy identifies three priorities - to strengthen Sydney’s competitiveness, improve productivity and capacity, and promote opportunities for Sydney’s business community.

As part of the broad strategy, a series of action plans are being developed to analyse in detail the issues faced by new and established industry sectors and to set programs to respond to emerging challenges.

Draft action plans covering the priority retail and tourism sectors have already been completed and welcomed by business and tourism groups. Major retailer David Jones has backed the City’s desire to make Sydney Australia’s premier retail destination that is a match for comparable global cities.

Tourism Accommodation Australia welcomed the tourism action plan as a major milestone for the accommodation sector by recognising the importance of the tourism to the local economy.

Upcoming plans will be prepared for small business and entrepreneurs, creative and digital industries and international education.

Action plans will also be produced for new and emerging sectors, including Sydney’s green economy.

www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

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THE State Government’s proposal to expand police powers to 'move-on' people engaging in illegal picket line and protest activities will help protect fundamental rights of Victorian businesses, says Victoria’s peak employer body.

“The right to freely enter one’s premises is a fundamental right. People should be able to go about their business and earn a living without others preventing them from doing so or making them fear for their safety,” says VECCI Chief Executive Mark Stone.

“It is also fundamental that their clients, customers and suppliers are able to freely enter and exit business premises and that private property is protected.

“VECCI supports the introduction of these new laws and calls for them to be passed by the Victorian parliament as soon as possible.”

The Bill before Parliament would grant Victoria Police the power to issue move-on orders where a person is:

- impeding lawful access to a business premises; or

- obstructing others or traffic; or

- causing a reasonable fear of violence.

“A number of Victorian businesses have been subjected to illegal picket line activities and protests in recent years including the CBD blockade of Grocon’s Myer Emporium project. More recently, traffic has been affected by the East-West link protesters. It is vital that the rights of businesses are protected and that major projects are able to proceed,” says Mr Stone.

“Victorians need to support each in these challenging economic times and we need the economic activity that major projects stimulate.

“There is no place for those who do not respect the rights of others to engage in lawful work and business activity.”

The Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) is the peak body for employers in Victoria, informing and servicing more than 15,000 members, customers and clients around the state.

www.vecci.org.au

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PEAK retail industry body the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said Australia is losing around $1 billion in GST revenue because of the Low Value Threshold (LVT) GST giving overseas business a tax advantage.

A reduction to $20 in the threshold from the current $1000 collection rate must be made a priority.

ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman agrees wholeheartedly with the Shopping Centre Council of Australia’s (SCCA) recent statement that the LVT actually operates as a ‘reverse tariff’ by raising the prices of local goods and lowering the prices of imported goods.

“The ARA supports SCCA’s view that this makes no economic sense - particularly when it means less money is available for hospitals, schools and other community services.

“An Ernst and Young 2013 report estimated that GST revenues could be raised if the LVT was lowered from $1000 to $20. Ernst and Young estimated that good imports alone would capture an additional $997 million of GST in 2014/15 - growing to $1.643 billion by 2020/21.

"Thousands of jobs are at risk if closing the GST loophole is not made a priority. This issue is costing jobs in the retail sector as people are buying overseas where GST is not applied. All retailers ask for is a level playing field to compete on.

“In a time when our country is in financial crisis, this would seem to be a natural righting of a tax loophole that hasn't kept up with the global digital revolution. By leaving offshore online purchases tax free, Australia is only hurting itself. We are sending profits to foreign companies, jobs to foreign workers, and tax revenue to a foreign government.

“If urgent action is not taken, a further 33,000 jobs will be lost by 2015 in the discretionary retail sector and states will forego $2.453 billion on GST revenue by 2015.

“The previous Labor government sought to justify its own inaction on the issue by arguing that the cost of collecting GST on online shopping would outweigh the additional revenue it brought in. However, this was contradicted last year by Labor's own Low Value Parcel Processing Taskforce, which found the incremental revenue generated by scrapping the tax break would more than cover the cost of collection.

“The opportunity is there for the government to restore a level playing field - the government must stop what is active discrimination against Australian retailers who are being taxed in areas their overseas counterparts are allowed to avoid.

“The current customs and parcel GST collection system should be replaced by a system that requires offshore suppliers to register for Australian GST and collect and remit the tax. This proposal has been talked through with the Federal Government for the last two years. It can be achieved through a simple lodgement of a Business Activity Statement (BAS) just as Australian businesses are required to do.

“By targeting just the large overseas online retailers to start off with, GST would be collected at little cost to government, taking away the long held argument that the tax is too expensive to collect.

“The ARA believes that over a reasonably short period of time nearly all the lost revenue from GST not being collected by overseas retailers will be brought in, thereby helping states pay for schools, police and hospitals along with helping local Australian retail businesses by putting them on a level tax playing field in both their online and traditional stores.

“The ARA will continue to work alongside the government to get this issue resolved once and for all,” Mr Zimmerman said.

Since 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body representing Australia’s $265 billion retail sector, which employs over 1.2 million people. The ARA ensures retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 5,000 independent and national retail members throughout Australia.

Visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041

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