MELCBOURNE is not the only city grappling with urban sprawl. With stronger population growth than all other regional Victorian municipalities combined, Geelong is rapidly expanding into new greenfield, master-planned communities in Armstrong Creek, Batesford South and Lovely Banks.

The House Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities will visit Victoria’s second city on Monday to discuss strategies to ensure these new communities have access to critical community infrastructure and employment opportunities in a timely manner.

The Committee is conducting a public hearing at City Hall as part of its inquiry into the Australian Government’s role in the development of cities.

It will discuss ways Australia’s regional cities can learn from capital cities’ experiences in accommodating much larger populations. It would like to see regional centres cultivate employment opportunities in new master-planned neighbourhoods, to minimise car dependency and avoid the congestion issues plaguing capital cities.

In its submission to the inquiry, the City of Greater Geelong said, “planning for population growth in the [region] has included planning for employment nodes and access to jobs”.

“It is critical to the Geelong region that as we grow in population that this is supported by growth in jobs.”

“Federal government support in investment attraction and funding for significant infrastructure can provide critical leverages to enable private investment in regional centres and assist in promoting the competitive advantage of regional locations for business.”

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

Public hearing details: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm, Monday, 20 November 2017, Council Chamber Room, City Hall, 30 Gheringhap Street, Geelong

9.00 am: G21 – Geelong Region Alliance, Committee for Geelong, City of Greater Geelong, Geelong Chamber of Commerce

10.40 am: Wyndham City Council, Horsham Rural City Council, LeadWest

12.50 pm: Regional Development Australia – Barwon South West Committee, Barwon Regional Partnership, Urban Development Institute of Australia - Geelong Region Committee

2.10 pm: Professor Louise Johnson, Deakin University, Mr Todd Denham, UN Global Compact Cities Programme

3.00 pm: Close

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

Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website. 

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THE Australian small business sector has embraced and welcomed legislation that protects them from unfair contracts.

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, said a recent survey showed high awareness among small business operators of the unfair contract terms (UCT) legislation, which has now been in force for one year.

The East & Partners SME survey* of 1280 businesses showed 49.6 per cent had relied on the UCT legislation to negotiate fairer terms in the previous six months and the awareness level was 78.2 per cent.

“There is no doubt this protection was badly needed,” Ms Carnell said.

“Protections for consumers were introduced as part of the broader Australian Consumer Law and fully implemented in 2011.

“From 12 November 2016, the unfair contract terms law was extended to cover standard form small business contracts.

“Regulators have been enforcing the law and small businesses have welcomed the protection.”

Ms Carnell said her office had handled more than 20 assistance cases involving unfair contracts.

One example involved a standard form commercial lease.

“With the assistance of my office, the small business was able to negotiate removal of potentially unfair contract terms in the agreement,” Ms Carnell said.

Earlier this year, the Ombudsman worked with ASIC and the big-four banks to ensure small business loan contracts were fair and easier to understand.

“This means that banks can no longer unilaterally vary a contract,” she said.

“They no longer have the power to terminate a loan for an unspecified negative change in the circumstances of the customer.”

Ms Carnell said she was encouraged that most big businesses understood their obligations and had acted to ensure compliance.

“I wrote to Amazon recently to ensure their Australian contracts conform with the legislation and received a positive response. I’ve also written to Ali Baba along similar lines,” she said.

“After a Federal Court ruling against the contracts used by JJ Richards I wrote to other waste management companies and received assurances of their compliance.

“If a court finds that a term in a standard form contract is unfair, the term is void. This means that the term is treated as if it never existed.

“The effect of this legislation has been to level the playing field for small business in dealings with large entities that have much greater financial power.”

Small business operators who believe that contract terms are unfair can contact the Ombudsman’s office for assistance, phone 1300 650 460.

* The question was asked as part of the East & Partners SME Transaction Banking survey, which examines and forecasts demand for transaction banking product lines and service offerings within Australia’s Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) segment (A$1-20 million turnover per annum).

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THE Export Council of Australia (ECA), in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australia Awards, are hosting a delegation of female small business owners from across the Pacific in Australia from 12-24 November.

Lisa McAuley, CEO of the ECA said, “Given the contribution made by SMEs to job creation, programs that foster their growth can help raise incomes and reduce poverty in developing countries. Supporting developing countries to trade and prosper will ultimately benefit Australia’s trade and investment opportunities.”

The “Australia Awards: Women Trading Globally” course has been designed under the Aid for Trade initiative to assist small business owners from the Pacific to develop the capabilities needed to open their businesses to new international markets, as well as connect with other women entrepreneurs in Australia.

The program consists of one week of training in Brisbane, and one week of training in Sydney and is the first of its kind to be supported by the Australian government.

“In supporting the engagement of developing market SMEs into trade-based economic flows, Aid for Trade assists in ensuring the overall health and sustainability of global supply chains, and serves as a mechanism for encouraging sustainable sourcing, good governance, labour and child safety, anti-corruption measures and a range of related 21st Century trade practices.” Ms McAuley said.

Ms Collins Rex, Programme Manager and Head of Skills Development for the Export Council of Australia said, “We were overwhelmed by the response to our call for candidates, with over 250 remarkable women from across the Pacific submitting applications. It was extremely difficult to whittle down the original 250 to a shortlist of 100 and, ultimately, to select 15 extraordinary women to participate in this two-week intensive international business training program.”

The program consists of an intensive training course in Brisbane to assist particpants in developing their export strategy and business plan, followed by an interactive agenda in Sydney that will include a series of roundtable table events with trade experts and business leaders.

The program includes site visits with two fantastic female leaders in international trade, Samea Maakrun the Managing Director of Sasy n Savy and Jane Lu the Founder & CEO of Showpo, who have kindly opened their doors to the delegation. Participants will also undertake tours of innovation hubs including Triangles XYZ, Tank Stream Labs and Fishburners, as well as Indigenous advocacy training at UNSW.

The Export Council of Australia will host two networking events — in Brisbane, hosted by Microsoft Australia, and in Sydney — to encourage female exporters in New South Wales and Queensland to meet and network with the delegation.

www.export.org.au

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NBN Co chief executive officer, Bill Morrow, will today address the Global Broadband Futures conference in Sydney – which brings together an acclaimed line up of international telecom executives.

Speakers at the event include: Mike McTighe, Chairman of UK network operator Openreach; Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, chief technology officer of Deutsche Telekom; Byungki Oh, vice president of global development at Korea Telecom; and Jeff Finkelstein, executive director of advanced technology of US cable operator Cox Communications.

These companies will discuss how they are delivering next-generation broadband networks in their countries to meet the growing demands of end users.

NBN Co has a unique view to share in terms of the complexity of its build and the technology it will use to deliver universal access to every Australian by 2020.

Mr Morrow said, “We are very proud to be part of the Global Broadband Futures conference, this is a really important event for the local broadband industry.

"We continue to learn from our peers around the world and share our insights. Having these experts in the country allows us to learn from one another and make sure we deliver for Australia in the best way possible.

“It is so important for Australians to hear the facts about what is going on in the rest of the global broadband market.

“The reality is that the vast majority of countries around the world are adopting the same approach as nbn and deploying a range of technologies to deliver improved services, the significant difference being scale.

“For Australians to be able to hear that message from some of the leading telecom operators in the world will be extremely valuable in a noisy, often misinformed environment.”

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