If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to register for our special Secure Jobs, Better Pay Briefing tomorrow, Friday December 9. It’s free for all members and our dedicated Workplace Relations Team will provide a detailed summary of the changes and how they will impact you. If you have any concerns or questions make sure you register and you can do so here.

With the new Victorian ministry announced, the Victorian Chamber is arranging meetings with key ministers to ensure we continue to advocate strongly on behalf of business. The Government has committed to more than half of the recommendations contained in our State Election Platform, Powering Victoria’s Future, and we look forward to working closely with them to implement these important reforms to assist business.

It was wonderful to see so many of our members today at our last major event for the year, our annual Women in Business lunch featuring Australian wellness entrepreneur Jessica Sepel. We are always looking for new opportunities to showcase inspirational female business leaders and it has made me even more excited for the second year of our Chamber Change program.

We are extremely proud of Chamber Change and believe it is making a real difference in empowering, celebrating and elevating women in business. We will be rolling out programs two to four from February and with a brand-new cohort of participants, we look forward to helping develop the female business leaders of tomorrow.

We are also proud to be delivering an internship program in partnership with Jobs Victoria and Youth Activating Youth (YAY) next year, which will provide 60 young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds an opportunity to kickstart their careers through paid internships, and I encourage all employers to consider taking part.

This opportunity not only enables you to utilise the skills, ideas and talents of a degree-qualified intern for six to eight weeks and qualifies you for a $5000 payment, but it also provides a unique opportunity to give a career leg-up to young people, which could change their lives. More information can be found here.

I would also like to encourage everyone to consider taking part in next year’s Run the Tan event being held on 30 April 2023 in support of Mental Health. They have introduced a brand-new category for corporate teams which we are proud to be sponsoring, and we are offering discounts on all of our Mental Health training courses to all corporate teams and participants.

Don’t forget it’s not too late to enter your team into the ‘Longest Day’ to support the Cancer Council. Well done to Andrew Buxton from MAB for his drive and determination in bringing this together.

Finally, the Salvation Army Melbourne Project 614 Team is hosting a special celebration event, the 2022 Cans Film Festival, to support people doing it tough. On December 13 they are holding a free Blues Brothers Film Launch, with all attendees encouraged to bring a can to show support. It sounds like a fantastic event and more details can be found here. Major Brendan Nottle and his team do so much to support people in need around Melbourne, so please do what you can to help them.

It’s a massive weekend ahead for Melbourne and congratulations to Visit Victoria and Always Live for the Billy Joel concert at the ‘G on Saturday night. It will be brilliant and hopefully I might see some of you there!

Have a wonderful rest of the week.