Restaurant & Catering Australia raises small business concerns from the Federal budget
There mixed feelings from the hospitality industry after the Albanese government released its first federal budget on Tuesday.
Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA), which looks after cafes and catering businesses said there was hope for some small businesses, but queried whether that included hospitality businesses.
“The Budget handed down tonight makes a lot of big promises in terms of bringing people back to workforce and supporting them staying there. However, there are still unaddressed concerns about the rising costs of doing business in this country,” R&CA CEO Ms Belinda Clarke said.
“Australia’s 57,000 restaurants, cafes and catering businesses need a commitment from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer that they will see this support,” she said.
“With crippling staffing shortages and wages and costs spiralling out of control, the industry is in desperate need of bold and far-reaching policy reform to bring back the workers lost over the past two years. But more needs to be done to support small business across Australia who are struggling with the increasing costs of doing business.
“More money to speed up incredibly backlogged visa processing times, an increase to the permanent migration cap, huge amounts of support for skills and training, more housing for local and migrant workers to live in and more childcare support for parents looking to return to the workforce are exactly what the industry has been crying out for. The government now just needs to do the smart thing and talk to industry to see how to target that support. We’ll be waiting.
“There are currently 102,000 jobs in the hospitality sector that need to be filled. If you walk down any street in any town or city in Australia, you will see signs in every window of every restaurant and café advertising part-time and full-time work. Things are getting dire.”
While the peak body has welcomed the government’s action with regard to migration programs and Visa processing, it does have concerns about multi-employer bargaining and workplace relations changes that it feels favours big business over small business.
It is also concerned about the Country of Origin Labelling scheme for seafood, which could place undue financial burden on small businesses.
Limiting the number of hours international students can work is also a red flag for the R&CA.
“We will continue to monitor these matters as they arise and will advocate and fight on behalf of the industry. Things are so tough for venues, we just don’t need any more red-tape and counterproductive policy that will lead to further business closures,” Clarke said.
“There have been a lot of big promises made in tonight’s budget. Let’s see if all of tonight’s talk will walk the walk.”
Jonathan Jackson - 26-10-22
