Industry disappointed with election budget

Print industry leaders are united in their disappointment in the third budget of the Morrison government, which they said, while having a few bright spots, failed to show much meaningful support for the industry or the businesses within it.

Calling it a “cash splash for the election” Walter Kuhn vice president of PVCA labelled it as “disappointing, while Kellie Northwood, CEO of TRMC said the government "needs to recognise the important role" print plays in the economy, and said the  budget was a "6.5 out of 10."

Peter Harper, CEO of industry suppliers association Visual Connections said there were, “missed opportunities for tax reform and business investment", but said there were positives, in what he said was an "interesting" budget.

Walter Kuhn said, “There are no long-term benefits or even medium term benefits. Even the $2.7bn in increased funding for apprentices is dependent on finding them first, which in an era of very low unemployment is not easy.

“Likewise the external training support is dependent on taking staff out of the workplace, which is not an attractive option for most small and medium sized print business. The government knows there will not be much take up.”

Kellie Northwood said,“The immediate feedback on this budget is that it is not a business budget, rather a families budget in an election year, and we can see the big ticket items are one-off cash bonuses and individual benefits. In that we are discouraged as an employer group, and will need to work through the detail to determine how best to apply this for our industry and members.

“That said, TRMC did issue a Budget Industry Briefing summary to government, and there are elements from the ten recommendations we issued that we can take much comfort in. Our call for investment in training, innovation, talent retention and acquisition is supported with the training, digital and workflow $100 investment and $120 tax benefit, and hiring subsidies for business, investment in employment of women and programmes specifically for male-dominated industries will create opportunity for our industry initiatives, and the Love Paper awareness campaign, as well as our call for mental health and suicide prevention for industry and community. From our recommendations and industry briefing a score of 6.5 out of 10 for this budget, and more work to come." 

Harper said, "In general terms, this budget appears to be good for individuals, with some immediate 'cash to splash' which will relieve some of the pressures caused by recent price rises, and will hopefully increase flagging consumer confidence and boost household spending."

Kuhn welcomed the 120 cents in the dollar deduction for digital technology investment, which he said would be “good for the industry”, but he said “The government has not addressed updating manufacturing industry. There is a lot of mechanical engineering in manufacturing, even an advanced manufacturing industry which is print, and this has been left in the cold.”

Harper said, "Small businesses in our sector may benefit from the measures to support investment in digitisation, though we tend to be fairly well-equipped already in this area, and with cyber security an area of increasing risk, the boosted investment in this area is also welcome."

He also said, "We welcome the investment in skills development and training, including the extension of supports already in place, the new incentives for both apprentices and their employers, and the encouragement for small businesses to invest in upskilling their own employees."

The absence of any announcement on buy Australian print with Australian taxpayer dollar imperative frustrated both TRMC and PVCA. “TRMC was disappointed that there was no strong buy Australian or local industry commitments, however we will be holding the Hon. Treasurer Frydenberg to his statements last night, calling on Australian business self-reliance and strengthening of our local supply chains, government will need to put ‘their money where their mouth is’, to coin a phrase, and support local manufacturing and TRMC’s local print procurement policy as standard in government practice,” said Northwood.

Kuhn said, “Australian taxpayer dollars should be spent on Australian print. The money stays in the country, it helps print businesses invest in new technology, and employ more people.”

Like many business, print is facing a labour shortage, but with no change to migration limits allied with low unemployment Kuhn says those shortages are bound to continue. He said, “Every time a printer advertises for a job they get a heap of applications from overseas. Modern Australia is a country built on immigration. This budget is a missed opportunity to address that issue. There are currently 160,000 job vacancies across the country, and an unemplyment rate that is heading below four per cent. There are people overseas who want to come and work in Australia, and want to come now. The budget should have adressed that."

On labour, skills and migration Northwood said, “In relation to skills shortages in the immediate term, we are monitoring migration and skills shortages across our industry and challenging wage cost increases as our industry has been impacted by limited talent and increased wage pressures. Migration levels not being increased does continue to apply pressure given the very low employment figure is limiting employee availability and unskilled labour supply, we will be looking further into the Afghanistan and Ukraine migrant intake commitments which have been listed for increase, however how this impacts total migration numbers and skills in-take for our industry remains unclear at this time."

Looking to the future Kuhn said, "PVCA really hopes that whoever wins the election will look at long term projects that are in the best interests of Australia."

Northwood concluded, "As a wrap, there are many areas that link to our recommendation into government and now TRMC will be breaking down each area of the 2022 Budget, aligning it to our Industry Briefing Recommendations and engaging government on how our industry can benefit from much-needed government focus to stabilise our high industry employment levels, skilled and unskilled employment levels, support the thousands of small businesses our industry includes and strengthen our future pathway and ultimately, our industry’s strong contribution to the economy. We are an $18bn industry across the Collective’s membership and the government needs to recognise the important role we play."