The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has welcomed a number of measures in the New South Wales State Budget but highlighted the lack of support for small businesses and families doing it tough.
Some of the key changes of interest to retailers include the Future Women Jobs Academy program to increase women’s workforce participation, extension of subsidised apprenticeships and traineeships, and significant investment to build, upgrade and repair roads to improve supply chain efficiencies.
The ARA also highlighted additional support for the Office of the 24-Hour Commissioner to focus on regulatory reform and other initiatives to support growth of the night-time economy, as well as funding to support the transition to the digital economy and improve cyber security.
ARA chief industry affairs officer Fleur Brown said the supply chain and training measures announced in the budget are much needed. However, with Australians facing one of their toughest years financially, she said the sector was hoping for more solutions to ease pressures on struggling households and businesses.
“While we applaud some of the worthy and visionary measures, in this prolonged cost-of-living crunch, retailers were hoping for much-needed temporary relief for households – which could also flow through to the retail sector,” Brown said.
“After years of pressure, retail and hospitality businesses continue to navigate the impacts of rising costs and reduced spending.
“It’s disappointing there is no immediate relief in this budget to help offset the higher costs of doing business – such as changes to payroll tax or energy rebate incentives to complement the rebates announced by the Federal Government.”
The ARA then welcomed measures that are expected to positively impact the sector in the future.
“Retail is a strongly feminised sector,” Brown said. “We welcome the investment in traineeships and apprenticeships, as well as the launch of a Future Women Jobs Academy program which will help address critical labour and skills shortages.
“We also applaud measures to provide greater support for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence.
“Supply chain challenges have impacted our sector in recent years - from weather events to global constraints - so we particularly welcome the $3.3 billion investment to rebuild road and transport infrastructure damaged by natural disasters, to improve supply chain efficiencies and resilience.”