Latest News
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Defending your market from competition
Mark Ostryn | June 26, 2012How do you make your business stand out from the pack? Mark Ostryn shares his ideas on how to defend your business against competition.
Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses that have what he calls a protective ‘moat’ around them – one that inoculates them from competition and allows them to control their pricing.
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Have your say: Hazardous waste
Helen Hull | June 19, 2012The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities is undertaking a review of the Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1989 and associated regulations.
Submissions close: 12 July 2012.
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New gender equality law moves forward
Helen Hull | June 19, 2012A new law to promote gender equality in Australian workplaces is a step closer.
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill 2012 passed through the House of Representatives late yesterday.
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Employers not cashing-in on staff training funds
Kathleen Newcombe | June 19, 2012Too many employers are unaware of government funding opportunities to upskill staff through accredited workplace training. Sarina Russo Institute CEO Kathleen Newcombe explains the benefits including funding of up to $3000 per employee.
Existing worker traineeships are a fantastic opportunity to ensure employees have the right skills to do their job and improve the productivity and competitiveness of the business.
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Make those New Year goals stick
Shivani Gupta | June 12, 2012Motivation and clear goal setting is important to ensuring that you and your staff are hitting their targets. Shivani Gupta shares her ideas on how to make sure you stick to the plan.
We are almost half way through the year. How are you going with those goals you set for yourself and your department or organisation in the New Year or at the last planning session?
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Changes to business registration cuts red tape
Helen Hull | June 12, 2012The way business names are registered has been changed in an attempt to cut costs and red tape for businesses across Australia.
The Federal Government and every State and Territory Government has now passed legislation to allow the first unified national business names registration service.
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Red tape and Australia’s cost of doing business
Tim Mazzarol | June 6, 2012How does Australia fair against other nations when it comes to Red Tape? Tim Mazzarol takes an indepth look at where we sit compared to other countries and what this means for local businesses.
The term “red tape” has been used so much in recent years that it is difficult to trace either its meaning or its origins. It is thought to have come from the use by King Charles V of Spain’s use of red tapes manufactured in Holland that he used to bind important documents of state during his reign in the 16th Century.
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Bad regulation clogging the economic arteries of Australia
Kelly O'Dwyer MP | June 6, 2012The complexity of regulation and the costs of complying with it are often cited as impediments to business in Australia. Kelly O’Dwyer believes that, like bad health, bad regulation brings us all down.
As the family doctor reminds my father, there is both good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Good cholesterol helps keep the artery walls clean and is absorbed through liver metabolism. Bad cholesterol builds up and clogs the arteries and can lead to coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke or worse.
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The right use of power
Jenny Morawska | June 6, 2012Jenny Morawska believes that women need to understand their power, stand in that power and use it ethically.
We talk about power all the time – do we really understand what it is and how to use it?
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Does red tape strangle an economy or provide a safety harness?
Fergus Neilson | June 5, 2012It can be hard to tell when red tape has grown out of control and when it is the glue that is holding things together. Fergus Neilson says that removing red tape could leave Australia open to corruption and commercial opportunism.
Open the pages of any publication of even the slightest ‘rightest’ hue and you will trip over demands for an immediate removal of red tape.
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Stop feeling guilty about making quick decisions!
Jeff Cooper | May 30, 2012How long do you take to make decisions for your business? Jeff Cooper believes that you don’t have to take days or months ticking all the right boxes because decisive decision making can benefit your bottom line.
Leaders of medium enterprises have to think quick and generally make tough decisions by ‘going on their gut’. This can often lead to guilt or, more accurately, the concern that the decision made wasn’t given the time or introspect it deserved and could have been the wrong one.
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Cut red tape to help innovation
Peter Strong | May 29, 2012Medium and small businesses are the heart of innovation in Australia however, they can be restricted by competition policy, contract law and compliance demands. Peter Strong believes cutting Red Tape can help these businesses to thrive.
The world is stumbling around an economic meltdown and the way out of that will be found through small business, hard work and innovation.
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Have your say: Stronger Super reforms
Helen Hull | May 29, 2012You are invited to have your say on taxation relief to support the implementation of Stronger Super.
Closing date for submissions: Friday, 8 June 2012.
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Australia–Malaysia sign Free Trade Agreement
Helen Hull | May 23, 2012Economic ties between Australia and Malaysia have been strengthened with the signing of the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The agreement will act to further integrate the Australian economy into the fast-growing Asian region and will benefit industries including milk, automotives, processed foods, plastics, chemicals and a range of manufactured products, wine, iron and steel as well as rice.
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Women typically earn $250.50 a week less than men
Helen Hull | May 22, 2012Australia’s working women earn 17.4 per cent less than their male colleagues, based on new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The average weekly earnings of women working full-time is $1,186.90 per week or $250.50 per week less than men, who earned an average weekly wage of $1,437.40 per week. Over the course of a year, this difference would add up to $13,026.
