All of this is providing a welcome boost for businesses across our tourism, hospitality and retail sectors. We’ve seen huge crowds at the tennis which has reinforced how important major events are to Victoria’s economy.

If you head into Melbourne’s CBD regularly, you will have noticed the positive uptake in staff returning to offices. With students returning to the classroom next week, I have no doubt that office engagement will continue to grow and CBD-based businesses will enjoy the benefits.

Tomorrow is Australia Day. You may have seen some of the recent commentary on allowing employees the option to work on the designated Australia Day public holiday and take another day off in lieu, allowing employees the option to work on the designated Australia Day public holiday and take another day off in lieu.

The Chamber’s view is that it’s a decision for each business to make according to what works for them, their employees and their operational requirements. To assist our members, the Chamber has published an article outlining advice from our workplace relations consultants on this issue.

We are delighted to announce that the captain of Australian Diamonds netball team Liz Watson will be part of next week’s Victorian Chamber presents 'Road to the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games' event at the MCG, in place of Peter Bol.

Liz led the Diamonds to their gold medal win at the Birmingham Games last year and is a proud Victorian. She will join the CEO of Victoria 2026 Jeroen Weimar at the lunch on Friday 3 February as we countdown to 2026. If you haven’t already, make sure you book your tickets now to avoid missing out.

Meanwhile, the Victorian Chamber is cognisant that rising costs of living and power prices continue to cause concern and we are engaging members to ensure we develop policy solutions that will help ease bottom-line impacts, ensure reliability in energy supply and support businesses in their transition to a net-zero economy.

We will be continuing our Business Voice surveys across the year and I encourage you to engage in these so that we can ensure our advocacy continues to drive strong outcomes business.

I would also like to let you know that the Chamber has released another special podcast episode with audio from our Women in Business lunch with JS Health founder Jessica Sepel. All Victorian Chamber members can also take advantage of a special discount code which provides 20 per cent off products sitewide! 

Enjoy the remainder of the school holidays and the week ahead.