Weekly CEO Update

The retail sector has heard many times in recent years that it is a matter of when, not if, retail bricks and mortar fades away in favour of an exclusively online marketplace. Amazon, Alibaba, and other online goliaths will swallow up the industry, so we are told. The NRA does...

One of the headlines that frequently gets recycled is that robots are going to take everyone’s job. While technological advancement can seem exciting to some, it can inject a sense of fear in others who become terrified at the thought of losing their job to a machine. Unfortunately, this is...

Last week the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) made the first change to interest rates in nearly three years when it cut the official cash rate to a record-low 1.25 per cent. This rate cut merely confirms what we in the retail sector have known for some time –...

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) last week handed down its Annual Wage Review. As always, the NRA had made a strong contribution in the months leading up to the decision, making both an initial submission and then a submission in reply to the FWC. Throughout the process we urged the...

I know that a lot has been written and said about the Federal Election, and this will be my last comment on it.  However, now that the dust has settled a little, I think it’s worth revisiting the Coalition’s workplace policies, as a preview to what employers and workers...

People often accuse retailers of their advertising efforts at certain times of the year – Christmas, Mothers’ Day and so on.  But let’s face it, we are rank amateurs compared with what Australia has been through in the last couple of months! But it’s over now, and it’s safe to...

Anxiety tends to heighten for retailers during elections as people stop spending in the leadup to the ballot. But waiting for customers to get over the fear of the unknown will not pay rents or wages. It’s times like these retailers need to build a connection with consumers to...

The Labor party’s commitment to introduce a national ban on single-use, lightweight plastic bags from 2021 should they win Government is one policy retailers, especially those with a national footprint, may have noticed amidst the noise of a fascinating election campaign. However simple they may sound, new laws are always...

Holidays should be a time for relaxing. Unfortunately, given the complicated regulatory environment we operate in, they can be a cause of great stress for Australian retailers. Any business owner or operator knows that this country has a complicated industrial relations system.  And understanding and complying with this system is...

Readers with long memories (who are kind enough to keep reading) might remember that three years ago, just before the last federal election, I wrote, “let’s hope the new Prime Minister manages to survive the full three years’’. Here we are again in 2019, and after yet another leadership spill...

As retail continues to endure a challenging period, we once again hear the doom and gloom predictions that 2019 will be a bad year for one of the economies largest sectors. No one is denying that the retail industry is going through a slow period, indeed the entire Australian economy...