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What about us? Let's get Serious!
A Federal Election has just been called and traders on the Sunshine Coast need that like a hole in the head. For some odd reason, the public seem to put their lives (and spending) on hold when we have an election? I have no idea why, I am sure there has been some expensive 'Consultancy' study on it at some stage. Regardless of who gets in, life goes on, the kids still have to be fed, you still have to go to work, no-one has ever been elected and blown the country up, so why put all plans on hold?
This is going to sound really selfish, and it is! The stories I have been hearing here on the coast in recent months are enough to make you want to cry. The media keeps telling me that I am supposed to care about...
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme; I don't, (well I do, just not at the moment), we can barely pay for electricity with all it's increases at the moment, who is going to be able to pay for more?.,
Asylum Seekers (boat people); Seriously? The 5000 odd desperate people compared to the 200,000 odd that fly in on visa's and then nick off? Get a grip! Is the country suddenly going to win one of those massive foreign lotto's to afford to patrol the whole coastline just to stop some refugees?
The Resources Super Profits Tax (Mining Tax); to be perfectly honest, our backyard is not terribly affected by mining, and like banks & oil companies, their profits just seem to go up & up, unlike the rest of us that just have to take a hit when times are bad, they just charge more. A lot of business out there would love to pay extra tax if they were making that much money!
What I do care about at the moment is my own backyard and the sorry state we seem to be in, which no Politicians (particularly candidates) are yet addressing? Unlike other regions, we don't have a massive infrastructure to keep us going when Tourism sucks. Christmas was really ordinary, Easter was not much better, and the recent holidays had to be one of the worst in the last decade and no-one in power seems to really care? Federal pollies only care about an election, State pollies have never paid attention to the Sunshine Coast, (we have none in power, so no help there) , our Council wants to make the whole coast 'green', which is lovely, in a perfect world I would be backing that, though at the moment, with all the empty shops vacated by businesses that have walked away from their leases, I think Council maybe need to be prioritising the survival of the small business here on the Coast a tad higher than some 'bright green initiatives'. Attempting to extend the airport is a good start (though too far away to help at the moment), Qantas flying here again would be even better?
Let me explain my concern... Not everyone who goes bust here on the coast gets featured in the Daily or Local News on TV. As many regular users know, we have an 'email now' on our business listings, many of these businesses are also on this 'Coast News', now, every time an email bounces, one of the girls in the office phone the business in question to get a new email address off them, as obviously we want the information onsite to be as correct as possible for visitors (110,000 visitors per month makes for a lot of whinging if info is not right LOL!). In the past, email changes & new websites were the reason for the bounce, or they may have moved off the coast or retired. It was pretty rare to get a business that just closed down. The last 6 months have been a shocker, the bounces have increased, and with that, the number of businesses that have just disappeared, gone bust, or just shut up shop, has risen each time.
I am not trying to be negative or alarmist here, just raise the issue, as it seems that the powers that be don't seem to have noticed. We have been doing this since 2002 and NEVER have we seen it like this! As I discovered at a Community Consultation meeting for Noosa Junction last week, I really don't think Council fully understand the serious situation that many Coast retail areas are in? Maybe they spend too much time talking to 'Consultants' and 'Interest Groups', instead of the 'ma & pa operators' who actually make up the majority of small business here on the Coast?
I am Not sure what the solution is? The girls here in the office are trying to help as many businesses as possible that contact us, finding different ways to promote them, making sure that they are using every area of the site possible (and without any extra charge), Hastings Street has come up with their 'Hastings Street Dollars', which hopefully will be successful for them. Not many other Chambers of Commerce have contacted us to promote any stimulus initiatives, so if you do have any, please let us know?
In the meantime... We know many families are struggling but if you do need any goods or services, please buy them off a local now, holding off until after an election will make no difference to you, but it will for the small local business owner and their employees. If you are a business that is struggling, hopefully the 'powers that be' will take some notice soon & assist with initiatives, don't bury your head in the sand and moan, get pro-active, think outside the box, chat to others in your area with same issue and maybe try to come up with some initiatives. This bad time will pass, we are too great an area for Tourists not to want to come here, we just have to hang tough until there is a bit more money around for both tourists & locals. Ask any tourist, they love our friendly laid-back small business atmosphere, it is what sets us apart from the likes of the Gold Coast and other Tourist destinations, it is something worth preserving and you can help!
Cheers,
Noely
The MSC Editors Desk 20 July 2010
Permanent Link: What about us? Let's get Serious!
Publish Date: 20 Jul 10
PO Box 38, Cotton Tree Qld 4558, Sunshine Coast Wide
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Comments / Have your say
They had plenty of opportunity to do a lot of things - education, health, population, the Murray! And they were a Lib Nat Coalition - just tell me what did they do for farmers?
I know (because I worked there) Federal policies, usually developed way in advance of crises, take 10 or more years to seep through - even longer for regional areas and longer again for remote areas.
What the pollies say at election time is a mish mash of all the possible policies for all the possible scenarios THAT WE KNOW ABOUT. Most of the important ones they don't tell us because they don't want the interruption of having to explain or reform their ideas ( mostly based on very good informatio that we don't have).
The GFC is not the end of the story. I believe (and I'm not really given to beliefs - a bit of a fence sitter, mostly) but I believe we are in deep sh^%t. I believe we need to support each other and we all need to start practising to give and take. NOW.
I have never commented here before but that article hit home like nothing else. As a small business owner, we've been trading for nearly 4 years and find every year a constant struggle to reinvent ourselves and diversify to accommodate the increasingly difficult retail trading environment. How is small business to compete with big retailers that all have a sale on every day of the year? Times are tough across the board and we need a government that is going to take some action. I agree with the above comment that as a liberal area in a Labour State, the sunny coast is always going to be hung out to dry! Why else would they be proposing a water treatment plant in one of the most awesome tourism areas of Australia?
Election couldn't come sooner for me!
The service station adopted a 'trade is good' attitude and reports he has traded fuel for cake, pumpkins and a chicken amongst other things - barter;
Another business will take gold, silver and copper in payment;
the local govt changed the rules so people in town could have chickens in the backyard.
Noosa (Maleny tried with Baroon dollars) has introduced the Hastings St dollar, for a bit of fun, but actually it could, if we didn't have to pay GST on everything, develop into a really useful alternative economy for communities to support local businesses.
I actually think we should just vote with our feet and helping each other. The governments come and go maybe we should be doing this for ourselves in a positive and supportive manner.
The dollar is high great for travellers awful for retailers
Tourists are scarcer and when we are all doing it tough then we cut down on our local spending too.
Dinners and skinny lattes are considerably reduced
BUT
we buy locally and are thinking about where our money is going.
Politicians are not looking at small business enough we are all suffering from the high interest rates and when everyone screams about the poor old super profit tax remember resources run out and at the moment we are all on high interest rates because the Mining Companies are coining it in and spending big.
Buy an extra latte and go to the local fruit monger and butcher lets all support each other and will will reinvent ourselves we are an amazing bunch we coast business folk.
Tourism will continue to suffer until, either the Labor government reduces its spending and debt levels, or we change the Government. For me it's time to move forward and change the government.
There are a lot of smart people living here now, who are under employed and under utilised. Let's use that dormant brain power for some collective good!
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