THE deadline has been extended for submissions to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration inquiry into the Seasonal Worker Programme.

The committee is particularly interested to hear from individuals and organisations who have participated in the Programme and would like to encourage all stakeholders who either administer or participate in the employment scheme to share their experiences.

Submissions will now be accepted until Friday 31 July 2015.

As part of the inquiry, the committee will be focusing on the role of seasonal workers in the horticulture industry and investigate whether the program should be expanded to include other countries and sectors.

Further details about the inquiry, including the full terms of reference and how to make a submission, can be obtained from the committee’s website at http://www.aph.gov.au/mig or by contacting the committee secretariat on (02) 6277 4560 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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ON grand final Friday, the cost to pay Victoria’s almost 2 million full time employees not to come to work could reach $543 million for the day.

Additional wages for the retail, accommodation, food services and recreation industries are estimated to cost small business owners $105 million for the two holidays as wages can be 50 per cent higher on Easter Sunday and 150 per cent higher on grand final eve.

The two new holidays widen the disparity between public holiday arrangements across Australia and will result in Victoria having a nationwide high of 13 days, compared to states like New South Wales with 11 and Queensland and Western Australia with 10.

Excerpts from Chief Executive Mark Stone’s press conference:

"It is a terrible decision that the government is continuing to go ahead with this plan," Mr Stone said.

"The government must do the right thing by Victorian businesses, do the right thing by people who are trying to employ more people and trying to create more jobs; and not take money away from them.

"I regularly meet with the relevant ministers, the Premier, the Treasurer, and I keep reinforcing that the view of business in Victoria is that this is the wrong call. They need to retract it. They’ll win a lot of support and business interest if they come back from this decision.

"What Victoria needs is more jobs and this plan is only going to set that back."

 The Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) is the most influential business organisation in Victoria, informing and servicing more than 15,000 members, customers and clients around the state.

vecci.org.au

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SOUTH KOREAN city, Daejeon, has received the honour of hosting the next Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors’ Forum in 2017 (2017APCS), following the record-breaking success of this year’s summit, which attracted 95 city leaders and more than 1,000 delegates over four days.

City of Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said Daejeon was selected ahead of five finalist bidding cities – Busan, Kuching, Panama, Ahmedabad, and Penang Island.

“The 2017APCS attracted the most competitive and diverse range of bidding cities that we’ve ever seen in our 10-year history, highlighting the growing importance of this forum in bringing city leaders together to discuss, share, and help respond to city urbanisation challenges across the Asia Pacific,” Cr Quirk said.

“As a sister city since 2002, Daejeon’s growing reputation as a leader in innovation and technology strongly aligned with our aspiration of becoming Australia’s new world city.

“Being the fifth largest city in Korea and Australia’s third largest export market, Daejeon has fast become the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Korea, with many of its large global businesses now based in Brisbane and south-east Queensland including Samsung, POSCO, CJ Nutracon, and KOGAS.

“In addition, we’ve further strengthened our partnership through a new Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier today with the Daejeon Metropolitan City Government.

“We are proud to announce it will launch an exciting internship program that will enable 20 Daejeon students to study English at International House in Brisbane.

“Congratulations to Mayor Kwon Sun-taik and his Government on their hard work in delivering such an outstanding bid and we look forward to 2017 for what will be an even bigger and better summit in Daejeon.”

On the final day of 2015APCS, delegates also heard from New York best-selling author, former Facebook Director of Marketing, and Zuckerberg Media Founder and CEO Randi Zuckerberg.

“Randi’s unique style thoroughly entertained our delegates, presenting her favourite 10 trends businesses could use to inject more creativity into their branding and marketing, encourage a ‘hacker’ or entrepreneurial spirit within their employees, and generally overcome a fear of failure,” Cr Quirk said.

Following her keynote, four young professionals took to the stage on behalf of more than 100 participants in the Young Professionals Program. Together they presented their cost-neutral solutions for cities on a range of urban challenges including transportation, sanitation, and energy efficiency.

“The calibre of young delegates from across the region engaged in the Young Professionals Forum continues to grow every year. This time they got the unique opportunity to present in front of over 90 city leaders, who collectively impact the lives of more than 130 million citizens around the world. Congratulations to this group of emerging young talent and we look forward to seeing how our leaders empower their ideas in the future,” Cr Quirk said.

The Mayors’ Accord was also officially announced and signed by all participating mayors today.

“Cities in the Asia Pacific will work together, with global partners, to advance common urban solutions in order to accelerate their global orientation, integration into the knowledge economy, technology uptake, governance, and liveability,” Cr Quirk said.

www.apcsummit.org

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Speaking at APCS in Brisbane, Tencent’s SY Lau predicts Internet Plus will enable and encourage the rise of smart cities

(Brisbane, Australia, July 7, 2015) SY Lau, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of its Online Media Group, spoke about the future of cities powered by Internet Plus today at the 2015 Asia Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) and Mayors' Forum.

Championed by Tencent, Internet Plus in a new concept in China describing the relationship between the Internet and society.

nternet Plus provides the backbone for administrations to create innovative way to develop smart cities. The ecosystem created through Internet Plus with online and offline activities can efficiently allocate resources, better connect people to private and public sectors, encourage entrepreneurship and improve lives.

“Internet Plus will create a new infrastructure, one that cleverly and efficiently allocates resources to meet the challenges today and in the future,” said Mr Lau. “Electricity is an essential utility – it’s an invisible force that’s easy to access. The Internet is emerging as a utility that is just as essential as electricity. It is up to us to utilize the Internet fully to enhance people’s lives and power sustainable cities.”

Internet Plus is not just a way to improve lives in urban areas. With technology, rural communities and towns are advancing down a new and different path.

Villagers communicate with WeChat (known as Weixin in China) and organize activities with Moments; they make purchases online, sell their products through an online retail platform and they spend leisure time playing QQ Games. Innovators of Internet Plus in urban areas can learn from the way villagers apply technology and the Internet to improve their lives and communities. Examples include:

• Chongqing, a western Chinese mega-city of almost 30 million people, became the first city to implement the Smart City concept powered by the technology of Tencent. Within 5 years, Chongqing will equip all traffic entry points with nearly 1,000 smart traffic monitors, linking the city’s transportation platform. Real-time monitoring and analysis will provide more efficient management of transportation.
• Didi Dache, a mobile taxi hailing app, informs taxi drivers of their potential customer’s destinations and of other customers nearby. Drivers can decide whether or not to accept the order and, if so, plan routes in advance, saving themselves and their customer’s time and resources.  

Tencent will be a facilitator and connector in the age of Internet Plus. There are already 40,000 Official Accounts in Tencent’s WeChat platform providing easy access to a wide selection of public services.

Connecting people, businesses and governments to each other and to technology is the first step. By the end of this year, Tencent will have 25 Innovation Centers across China, offering over 500,000 square meters of space for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Mr Lau concluded, “Brisbane is the second city in the world after New York to have a position of Chief Digital Officer. This beautiful city is at the forefront of leveraging technology to better serve the people here. We feel the energy and passion the city had and it is a truly valuable time to share our development experience with Brisbane.” 

To watch how technology is changing the people’s lives in rural areas in China, please watch https://youtu.be/aocsQkkNmFg 

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