From the Chair: 16 November 2022

By Michael Firman, MEA Chairman

Last month the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, delivered the Albanese government’s first budget against a backdrop of what’s been described as uncontrollable global turmoil.

From a pandemic to natural disasters, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and rising inflation, the Treasurer was at pains to focus on every day Australians and the cost of living – cheaper childcare, paid parental leave, cheaper medicine, housing affordability and wage growth.

The threat of recessions globally, high inflation, cost of living pressures and higher interest rates are expected to slow growth in Australia to 1.5 per cent in 2023-24. The good news is higher commodity prices and employment has led to increased revenue for the government meaning the deficit for 2022-23 is now forecast to be less than half than predicted back in March.

Amongst the big picture announcements, the Government also unveiled a range of direct and broader measures that support the recovery of Australia’s visitor economy. This is important because the visitor economy covers all visitors who travel to and within Australia, including travel for holidays, business, education and attending events.

The Government hopes that providing funding to the visitor economy in the budget will support the recovery of a wide range of small businesses in industries that provide goods and services to visitors including accommodation, transport, arts and recreation, travel agents and tour operators, education and training, food services and retail, and of course business event service providers.

It’s easy to feel our sector gets left out when you see many of the direct budget measures announced appear focused on the tourism industry to help attract visitors, upskill workers, grow visitor expenditure and invest in infrastructure and facilities, including $10 million in grant funding to support upgrades to eligible caravan parks.

Nevertheless, there was some good news for our sector with direct and indirect support for business events. This included $2 million, in addition to $48 million already committed, to update Tourism Research Australia’s International Visitor Survey and National Visitor Survey to support business events, which will allow estimates of the economic and social contribution of business events to be measured over the long term - Tourism Research Australia is part of Austrade.

It was also confirmed that Tourism Australia’s allocated budget remained unchanged for the current financial year at $181.7 million, which included an additional $10 million over two years. This will help to further support the implementation of Tourism Australia’s new global campaign as well as the continuation of the Business Events Bid Fund.

There were a range of other Budget measures that support Australia’s visitor economy. These measures are aimed at returning the visitor economy expenditure to $166 billion by 2024 and set it on the path to $230 billion by 2030. These targets are outlined in the THRIVE 2030 strategy.

Other measures attempt to address issues with visa processing for migrant labour and support for the aviation industry, two areas that continue to significantly impact on our sector. Major events also received a boost, with recognition that events such as sporting, artistic, cultural and business events drive high-yield and high revenue visitation.

Many of the announcements in the budget recognise the contribution of our sector, not just to the visitor economy, but to the growth of the Australian economy as a whole. As we continue to endure the impacts of a 2-year shut down of our sector through the pandemic, MEA continues to support the advocacy work of the Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) to ensure our industry can recover and rebound against the back drop of ‘uncontrollable global turmoil’.

While that support for advocacy is ongoing, MEA is working even harder for its’ members to provide support at the ground level, direct to members.

MEA recognises the immediate need for upskilling and training in our sector and has developed many programs to support our industry, including the MEA Mentor Program designed to assist members along their career pathway as event professionals; MEA's SIT50316 Diploma of Event Management course designed to educate and upskill those wishing to gain foundational knowledge and practical experience in the Australia events industry; a range of education programs delivered through MEA’s Registered Training Organisation (RTO) including two-day workshops and 1 on 1 coaching that provide practical knowledge and skills that can be applied in the workplace for immediate impact.

MEA hopes to provide a career pathway through continuous education and professional development to assist you in building a career in the events industry. And every organisation has unique training needs for the ongoing development of their teams.

If you would like more information regarding MEA’s Bespoke Training solutions that can be tailored to your organisation’s learning and development needs, contact the MEA Team at education@mea.org.au or call the MEA office on (02) 9929 5400 for more information.