AUSTRALIAN retail sales grew 3.8 percent year on year to $24.6 billion in October 2015 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) hopeful this level of growth and beyond will continue into the seasonal shopping period.

ARA Executive Director, Russell Zimmerman, said that retail sales growth is tracking at a steady pace ahead of the all-important Christmas shopping period, with October’s growth slightly higher than September’s 3.6 year on year growth.

Year on year figures provide the most accurate measure of the sector’s performance and are the figures used by most retail businesses in their own reporting. October 2015 sales rose 0.5 percent over September 2015.

“Despite the ARA being disappointed not to have seen a rate cut earlier this week by the Reserve Bank of Australia which would have provided a strong spending incentive in the lead up to Christmas, retailers are well placed to meet our Christmas growth predictions,” Mr Zimmerman said.

The ARA and Roy Morgan Research predicts Australian shoppers will spend $46.8 billion this Christmas in the six weeks from November 15 to December 24 – a record result.

Household goods and department stores were the big winners in October 2015, with growth of 5.9 percent and 4.7 percent respectively.

“The growth of household goods and department stores bodes well for Christmas. We hope this growth can be replicated in the coming weeks as Australians hit the shops to stock up on Christmas gifts.

“The start of warmer weather seen by most states in October was undoubtedly a contributor to some of this growth, while the popularity of television renovation shows continues to boost the household goods sector,” Mr Zimmerman said.

On a state basis, Tasmania showed it is small, but mighty, with an impressive 5.4 percent growth, closely followed by Victoria at 5.2 percent, and NSW, 4.2 percent

YEAR ON YEAR RETAIL GROWTH (October 2014 to October 2015 seasonally adjusted)

By category:

Food, three percent; household goods, 5.9 percent; clothing, footwear and personal accessories, 4.6 percent; department stores, 4.7 percent; other retailing, 2.7 percent; cafés, restaurants and takeaway foods, 3.6 percent.

By state:

NSW, 4.2 percent; Victoria, 5.2 percent; Queensland, 2.9 percent; South Australia, 2.8 percent; Western Australia, 2.1 percent; Tasmania, 5.4 percent; Northern Territory, 1.6 percent; and Australian Capital Territory, 2.3 percent.

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is the retail industry’s peak representative body representing Australia’s $284 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. The ARA works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 5,000 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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THE Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade today tabled the report for its inquiry into Government support for Australian defence industry exports.

The committee has recommended the Department of Defence recognise that elements of industry are essential to Australian Defence Force (ADF) capability and take steps to identify them, and establish long-term partnerships with industry to sustain them.

Chair of the Defence Sub-Committee, Senator David Fawcett (SA), said, “The recent First Principles Review of Defence has confirmed the Committee’s view that elements of industry essential to the ADF should be recognised as a Fundamental Input to Capability (FIC).  Defence therefore has an interest, indeed an obligation to find appropriate ways to work with industry to ensure that these capabilities can be developed and sustained. Defence exports are just one additional way that the industrial base linked to the ADF’s key capabilities can be sustained.”

The committee recommends specific areas where Defence will need to revise its approach to procurement to allow for long-term partnerships with industry, to drive innovation and maintain Australia’s sovereign capability.

Defence will need to find a new approach to identifying and managing risk to encourage the development of indigenous Intellectual Property (IP).  They need to adapt their policies to recognise that for complex capabilities that are FIC, value for money is more likely to be found through ongoing partnerships with industry, rather than through open competition. “In the past, there has been a sizeable gap between statements of policy and the experience of the defence industry. This must now change,” Senator Fawcett said.

This report’s recommendations aim to make FIC areas of industry more sustainable and more innovative. This innovation will be the basis of increased exports and more clearly define those areas where it is demonstrably in the national interest for the taxpayer to be funding support for defence exports. 

Other recommendations in the report include that the Department of Defence:

• revise the role of defence attachés;
• enhance the role for the Australian Military Sales Office;
• task ADF personnel to attend trade shows and events alongside industry;
• have active ministerial advocacy on behalf of the Australian defence industry; and
• improve processes within the Defence Export Control Office.

A copy of the report and information about the inquiry, including submissions, can be obtained from the committee’s website at www.aph.gov.au/jfadt.

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THE impact of new technologies upon society and the economy will be investigated tonight when telecommunications giant Telstra appears before the Infrastructure, Transport and Cities Committee, as part of the ongoing inquiry into the role of smart ICT in the design and planning of infrastructure.

Telstra’s submission focuses on emerging technologies and their potential benefits, such as human interface technologies, immersive communications, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Telstra notes that one of the most significant opportunities for the application of smart ICT is road infrastructure. The telco says that if Australia continues to build and operate roads as it does today that it’s likely to need about two and a half times more road capacity in 2050 than it has today.

The application of emerging technology—especially autonomous vehicles—means that the road capacity requirement in 2050 could be roughly equivalent to the capacity existing today.

Committee Chair, John Alexander MP (Bennelong, NSW), said that new technology was presenting exciting opportunities to make urban centres more liveable and productive and regional areas better connected than ever before.

“By exploiting the full potential of new technologies, Australia will become a more efficient, productive, connected and liveable place. The opportunities to radically improve the efficiency of transport networks in particular are there to be taken. Governments and business must grasp these opportunities to keep the nation competitive in the global environment,” Mr Alexander said.

Hearing details

Date: Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Time: 5:30 pm–7:00 pm
Witness: Telstra (Submission 14)
Venue: Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

The public hearing will be webcast live at http://www.aph.gov.au/live

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THE House of Representatives Agriculture and Industry Committee will conduct a public hearing tomorrow for the inquiry into agricultural innovation.

Appearing at this third hearing for the inquiry will be the CSIRO.

Committee Chair, Rowan Ramsey MP, said “Australia is privileged to have an innovative and enterprising agricultural community populated by farmers, research organisations like CSIRO, and a wealth of other passionate stakeholders. The Committee is keen to hear from CSIRO about the landscape for future agricultural innovation, and in particular to hear what government can to do help in overcoming barriers to technology adoption.”
 
The hearing will be held in Committee Room 1R1, Parliament House, Canberra:
 
Thursday, 26 November 2015
12.30 pm (approx.) CSIRO
1.30 pm close

The public hearing will be webcast live at: http://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Parliament

Further details about the inquiry, including submissions received and the terms of reference, can be obtained from the committee’s website at: www.aph.gov.au/agind.

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THE REVIEW of the National Capital Plan, the Capital Metro light rail project and the future of Floriade are all matters which may be discussed tomorrow when the National Capital Authority (NCA) appears before the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories Committee.

The NCA manages the Commonwealth’s interest in the planning and development of Canberra by administering the National Capital Plan. The Committee holds biannual hearings with the NCA to enhance transparency and parliamentary accountability applying to the organisation.

Committee Chair, Mr Luke Simpkins MP, said the NCA has been undertaking the first comprehensive review of the National Capital Plan since the plan came into effect in the 1990s.

“We’re interested in discussing the findings of the review, proposed revisions for the Plan and the implications for Canberra more broadly,” Mr Simpkins said.

PUBLIC HEARING       

 Thursday 26 November 2015

Committee Room 1R2, Parliament House, Canberra

10:00 am         Chair’s opening statement

10:05 am         National Capital Authority

11:00 am         Close

All members of the public are welcome to observe proceedings.

The hearing will be webcast at www.aph.gov.au/live

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AUSTRALIA’s Export Finance and Insurance Corporation will discuss how it is helping Australian companies make inroads into Middle Eastern markets with federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade at a public hearing in Canberra tomorrow.

The Trade sub-committee’s inquiry into trade with the Middle East will hear from Efic managing director Andrew Hunter and other representatives about its greater focus on providing financial support to Australia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to find new export opportunities in the Middle East North Africa region.

Efic is a government-backed export credit agency that provides finance and insurance support to assist Australian exporters. Efic operates on a commercial basis in partnership with banks to provide financial solutions for exporters with its loans, guarantees, bonds and other insurance products. It charges customers fees and premiums and earns interest on its loans and investments.

According to its 2014-15 Annual Report Efic provided 221 transactions to SMEs valued at $112 million, supporting 103 export contracts worth $575 million.

As an example of its support, a Western Australian-based geosciences company DownUnder GeoSolutions (DUG) won a contract in 2014 to install sophisticated computer hardware and DUG software into a fleet of seismic vessels in the United Arab Emirates. To assist DUG in expanding their overseas operations, Efic provided DUG’s bank with an export working capital guarantee worth more than $6 million for computer hardware and also an overseas direct investment guarantee to help it upgrade overseas offices and accelerate its growth strategy.

Public hearing

Date/Time                   Wednesday 25 November 2015, 11:05 am

Location                     Committee Room 1S3, Parliament House, Canberra

Organisation              Efic

Live audio broadcast will be available at www.aph.gov.au/live

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THE role of co-operatives and mutuals in the delivery of human services was today endorsed in the Federal governments’ response to the Competition Policy Review and support for a new set of competition principles to include ”choice and diversity of providers in human services.”

Mutuals peak body, the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) welcomes the government’s response to the Competition Policy Review and its support for the choice and competition principles in the domain of human services delivery (Recommendation 2).

In the final report, the Harper Review recognised co-operatives and mutuals could play a greater role in delivering human services, meeting productivity and efficiency objectives whilst safeguarding the principles of consumer directed care.

Reacting to the government’s response, BCCM CEO, Melina Morrison said the government’s decision to establish a Productivity Commission review to explore how the principles can be applied in practice to the human services sector was an opportunity to research reforms in different jurisdictions that incorporate principles of choice, competition and contestability including multi stakeholder and consumer owned co-operatives and staff led mutuals.

“Co-operatives and mutuals already make enormous social and economic contribution to this country, particularly in regional areas that tend to be under-serviced compared to cities. We see important lessons to be learned from examples of privatisation on one hand, and over involvement in provision of services by government on the other and we see great opportunity for mutual organisations to play a larger role in delivering services to communities in a way that promotes self-reliance and accountability.”

“An alternative approach to traditional privatisation could be to transfer particular services for example social housing and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) infrastructure to a mutual structure where the assets become community assets deployed for the benefit of the relevant community and are run on a mutual basis.

A mutual structure would facilitate governance for ongoing consumer benefit as opposed to shareholder benefit if services were privately sold”, added Ms Morrison.

www.bccm.coop

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THE Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA) acknowledges the decision by the government to delay the implementation of changes to Section 46 (regarding misuse of market power) of the competition regulations pending a review.

COSBOA also acknowledges the decision to implement other recommendations from the Harper Review of Competition Regulations.

Peter Strong, CEO of COSBOA, stated today, “We are very pleased to see the major recommendations from the Harper Review back in the limelight where they belong.

“It is pertinent that we focus on developing competition in aged care, human services, intellectual property, roads and other key areas. However, it is of course disappointing that several dominant companies have created enough confusion and fear that we have to delay the important changes needed to Section 46.

“The fact is that the biggest companies Australia has ever seen and their union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), use their influence and resources to control competition policy to the detriment of productivity, retail diversity and innovation,” said Mr Strong.

"When two major companies have such far reaching influence on producers and manufacturers, innovation is stifled. COSBOA knows this and this is why the changes in Section 46 are vital to ensure we do not develop similar damaging domination in other areas, such as aged care.

“Minister for Small Business, The Hon Kelly O’Dwyer has contacted COSBOA and other key groups and industry bodies to set up a series of round tables to discuss the issues of Section 46 and determine the right changes to make. An outcome is anticipated to be achieved by March 2016,” said Mr Strong.

Small business people can be assured that COSBOA will continue to confront those who spread misinformation and false facts, he said.

“We know that the Business Council of Australia and several of its members, particularly WesFarmers, will now, to the detriment of Australia, attempt to ramp up their lobbying and secret manipulations to get their way. Fortunately we have been assured by the government that all discussions will be open and the decisions will be made with competition, innovation and choice in mind as the outcome.

“COSBOA and its members have said for decades that the current state of competition is unfair and the dominant businesses are killing innovation. Ignored for years, we were finally proven right in 2014 when the ACCC successfully prosecuted Coles for unconscionable conduct towards its suppliers. This is why we need to be heard – to ensure the same thing does not ever happen again. Our innovators need space to do their stuff.

“On the day Bruce Billson, the previous Minister for Small Business, has announced his retirement from politics, it is heartening to see one of his ground-breaking initiatives taken forward,” finished Mr Strong.

www.cosboa.org.au

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