SME’s under attack with Labor

Few people in small and medium sized businesses understand what is about to descend upon them with Federal Labor’s new 500 page plus Industrial Relations Loophole Bill.

Under this Bill employing subcontractors becomes close to illegal and, for the first time, a union can walk into a business that has only one employee and issue dictatorial orders.

Unions now have the power to tell you how to run your business.

While the Government claims to be targeting big business it is all encompassing.

Early in January the Fair Work Commission issued this Media Release:

“Employers and employees should educate themselves on the new Closing Loopholes workplace laws and make sure they are compliant, the Fair Work Ombudsman said.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said there were important changes to the Fair Work Act that have been made or will be made by the laws, including the creation of a criminal offence for intentional underpayments.
“We urge workplace participants to be across the changes which create new or different rights or responsibilities,” Ms Booth said.

In other words, stop what you are doing and study the entire 500 pages of this legislation.

The FWO obviously now sees its powers as a workplace police unit expanding and backing the unions.

The Prime Ministers’ back tracking on the stage three tax cuts is symptomatic of a larger hidden plan to give the unions, in particular the militant unions, substantial control over the economy.

Of course, they are using the wage theft issue and labour hire issues as one of their reasons to take control of the broader workplace.

At the time of the Federal Election in 2022 the Labor Party conned all the business associations in Australia into believing they would be reasonable in changing the workplace laws.

How naive were these people who got into bed with the ACTU thinking all would be rosy.

COSBOA, the national small business association got conned as well.  They have now woken up but it is all too late.

OOOO

At its December meeting Central Coast Council placed their much-awaited revised Masterplan for Central Coast Airport on Public Exhibition until 12^th February.

It had been expected in the first months of 2023 but dragged out all year.

We now know why it has taken so long to produce.

Environmental activists within the Council along with Community Environment Network group have highjacked the whole process.

The airport and adjacent Warnervale Industrial Area is surrounded by the Porters Creek Wetlands that Mayor Jane Smith was instrumental in getting international protection for while she was in office.

The airport is now located in the centre of a pocket in the enormous Porters Creek Wetlands (see Page 14) as is the Warnervale Industrial Area.

Council says, “The Masterplan details the development of land surrounding the Central Coast Airport at Warnervale and presents the Central Coast with a new economic sector that will stimulate employment and economic activity.”

Well, this is hogwash.

This Masterplan is in two parts. The airport site and the Porters Creek Wetlands area surrounding it which Council intends to establish a “stewardship site” to control it.

It says the biodiversity values of the Wetland will be protected in perpetuity.

The big question is why would any business or investor trust this Council?

No one should ever forget that this Council reneged on a long-term contract with Amphibian Aerospace Industries as soon as they were elected. The council happily paid millions of dollars to AAI to break the contract.

Nothing has changed.

And there is more.  The Warnervale Industrial Area is separated from the airport by a strip of Wetland.

The largest business in the WIA is Woolworth’s massive Distribution Centre and Woolies wants to expand (see Page 6).

Some ecologist at Council has managed to find a ‘field of critically endangered orchids’ growing in a lawn planted on the site by the company.

So, Woolworths can take their $68 million and go to hell. Forget about the extra people they would employ. 

OOO

About twenty years ago Wyong established the Wyong Employment Zone that took in the Airport, the WIA and the area north of Sparkes Road.  

It was going to generate thousands of jobs and be a major economic driver for the northern Central Coast area.

Plenty of businesses, developers and investors acquire land in the WEZ but all have now realised that they were conned.

The overall issue here is that the Central Coast desperately needs fully serviced industrial zoned land.

OOO

On the brighter side things are really moving along in Gosford CBD. 

In the coming months we will be reporting on how 2024 is unfolding and how Gosford will indeed become the Capital of the Central Coast.