Print industry associations discuss “disappointing” budget

Print industry associations have described the 2022-2023 federal budget as a cash-splash family budget designed to help with cost of living pressures in an election year although there are some parts of it that can be leveraged for better outcomes for print in the future.

The Print & Visual Communication Association vice president Walter Kuhn said the budget was clearly a cash splash pre-election budget, while The Real Media Collective CEO Kellie Northwood gave it a 6.5 out of 10 rating. Both welcomed the commitments made to apprenticeship and training support.

Northwood also mentioned the programmes designed to encourage more women into traditionally male-dominated manufacturing sectors would help alleviate the ongoing talent acquisition and retention problem faced by the print sector.

The Real Media Collective’s GM IR, Policy & Governance, Charles Watson, said he was not “jumping for joy” with the budget announcements but said there were some areas that did in some way address some of the recommendations TRMC had put to government in the lead-up to the budget announcement. These were particularly around the additional funding for waste recycling and women’s programmes. The additional support for mental health and suicide prevention was also greatly welcomed, Watson said.

Here’s a little more about what the associations had to say:

Walter Kuhn, vice president, PVCA

Kuhn called the Budget a “cash for splash election budget”, saying that for individuals, it’s built on promises but for businesses, there wasn’t much to it.

Print & Visual Communication Association president Walter Kuhn

“The incentives that people will be getting during their tax claims is good but as far as things for the industry, like the apprenticeship scheme, they’re welcome but the current economic situation is that we don’t have the people to put apprentices on,” he said.

“Unemployment is at an all-time low – and it’s going to go lower. So, if you don’t have apprentices, then what’s the point of having a scheme built around it? Spending $2.8 billion on apprentices is excellent, but where are all these apprentices? I get that is a great idea but it has not come at the right time.

“And the issue with training is that it must be done externally. If that’s the case, does that mean you take staff away from the operation? We haven’t got enough staff to start off with as it is. So, if you’ve got a different set of circumstances, it may be a good budget. But in our current circumstances, there’s a lot to be desired.”

Kuhn added that any help that can be provided to businesses is warranted, but more can be done to better the economies in print.  

“Any help, as small or as big as it is, is great. But at the end of the day, you got to help when it’s needed, not after the moment has passed. We should be opening the borders and bringing more people in – that should have been part of the Budget. However, immigration is still capped at 160,000 people,” he said.

“The government needs to look at the practicalities of everything first and understand that, but very few of them look long-term. We need a government that isn’t scared to roll out a 10-year plan. It has got to be better for the country, not better for the politicians.”

Kellie Northwood, CEO, The Real Media Collective

“Essentially for us it is not a business budget, it is a family election budget. We have gone through our recommendations and we have marked it as about a 6.5 out of 10 because there are now some parts we can leverage around apprentice training but also programmes to encourage women into male-dominated industries,” Northwood said.

The Real Media Collective chief executive officer Kellie Northwood

“We do have a significant talent retention and acquisition problem so it is just about brining in new people but we have also got people leaving and we want to keep the best minds in this industry.”

Northwood said the digital transformation funding be well applied in the print sector, an area known for innovation and technology adoption.

“We are incredibly innovative. We use technology in everything we do in our manufacturing environments so there will be some things that we can pick out and drill into with that,” she said.

“Disappointingly there wasn’t much about manufacturing and there also wasn’t much about Buy Australian.”

Northwood said a comment by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg relating to increasing our self-reliance to strengthen supply chains will be used in TRMC’s government procurement policy work.

“So there are some things we can pick it. I don’t think there would be any industries that would be happy with this budget apart from maybe cyber security and defence industries,” she said.

Charles Watson, GM – IR, Policy & Governnance, The Real Media Collective

Watson said some of the recommendations made by TRMC in the lead-up to the budget were touched on but it was disappointing to see freight subsidisation was avoided, with the exception of the fuel excise being halved for the next six months, ending in September.

The Real Media Collective general manager of industry relations, policy and governance Charles Watson

“We wanted to see issues around freight subsidisation and supply chain issue dealt with but again we got the Treasurer urging that all Austarlian businesses be more self-reliant and strengthen their own supply chains. For industries which rely in part or in full on imported goods as part of the production process, that wasn’t dealt with, so that was disappointing,” Watson said.

“The fuel excise temporary reduction links to it but if global oil prices continue to rise it doesn’t address the issues of government intervention on freight costs generally. It might help out local and domestic companies that transport goods to clients but it will be probably be pretty minimal.”

A commitment to procuring Australian Made products was also missing in the Budget.

“Another recommendation was a call to commit to 100% Buy Australian in relation to print services. The budget didn’t provide an immediate response on that but we are going to be holding them to their budgetary statement about Australia needing to be self reliant and strengthen its own supply chains so we are going to continue to push that the government commit to procurement expenditure of 100% on Australian made and manufactured print products,” Watson said.

“Another one we pushed ws the current and future shortages of employees coming into the industry. We need to see improvelemtns in this. We’ve got an aging trade based workforce so they have committed$2.3b to increase the takeup and completion of apprenticeships, the new Australian Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme through wage subsidies . For small businesses have now got 20% tax deduction for sending their staff to external training courses through a registered RTO. So we welcome these measures around training and workforce.

“But we believe these steps should have gone further and more prominently.”

Innes Willox, Ai Group

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said the Budget is a mix of measures focussed on building the longer-term strength of the economy and providing short-term cost of living relief to help Australians get through the current spike in inflation.

Ai Group chief executive officer Innes Willox

“The Budget provides a welcome investment in skills development and training. The extension of existing support and the new apprentice incentives for employers and apprentices themselves, as well as the measure boosting the incentive for small businesses to invest in the skills of their employees are important down-payments on this critical area. The National Skills Agreement between the Commonwealth and the states and territories has the potential to further drive skills development but remains outstanding,” he said.

“The Budget unfortunately does not make headway into some of the structural barriers to further growth including taxation reform and the still disappointing levels of business investment. Hopefully this can be addressed in the lead up to the election.”

Willox also praised the measures to lift industry and university collaboration and the support for small businesses investing in digitisation, saying that they are important steps to drive Australia’s longer-term economic development.

“The Government’s cost of living measures will provide significant relief from the current uplift in inflation by easing pressures on fuel prices, giving low and middle-income earners as well as a wide range of pensioners and income support recipients more cash in their pockets,” he added.

“The inflationary risks of these measures will be significantly reduced if they are taken into account in wage deliberations – including in the upcoming National Minimum Wage Case.

“The Budget sets out the clear risks to the further recovery of the economy including another COVID wave, the impact of war in Ukraine, questions about China’s short-term growth and the build-up of inflationary pressures.

“The permanent migration target of 160,000 with a restored focus on skilled migration is clearly welcome but will not be sufficient to fill the labour and skill shortages that businesses and other employers are now facing. Business in particular will be hoping that this number can be raised as quickly as possible.”

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