For those of you who were fortunate enough to attend the 20^th Manufacturing Hall of Fame Awards at Crown on Tuesday night, I hope you share my sense of optimism and pride in this innovative industry. There are great things happening in the sector and that was evident with the calibre of finalists and winners. And the diversity across the board was completely next level.

It was an honour to present the award for ‘Manufacturer of the Year – Medium Business’ to Care Essentials and celebrate two wins for Victorian Chamber member Planet Innovate, who took home the trophies for ‘Outstanding Responsiveness to COVID-19’ and ‘Manufacturer of the Year – Large Business’.

Congratulations also goes to Patrick Boland and Pat McCluskey, founders of another Victorian Chamber member, ANCA Group, who were both added to the Victorian Manufacturing Awards Honour Roll for Service to the Industry. You can read more about their achievements here. Victoria leads the country in manufacturing, and we can certainly use our capability to power our economy into the future

Supporting Victorian businesses to help them lead our post-pandemic recovery is the key plank of our ongoing policy and advocacy work across the State. Today I’m in Traralgon, meeting with more than 50 business owners and representatives from Local Government, education, infrastructure and manufacturing. Our next roundtable is in Colac on August 9 followed by Warrnambool on August 10.

Your voice will help inform our policy platform for the State Election in November as we continue to engage with all sides of politics. Last Friday we hosted a lunch for business leaders in Bendigo with Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan and next month we will host our Business Breakfast with Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and his senior leadership team. Tickets to this event are still available and can be secured here.

This advocacy is critical as we saw with the State Government’s decision to invest $50 million in cutting red tape and saving Victorian businesses time and money. This was identified as one of the biggest barriers for business in our `Cost and ease of doing business in Victoria’ report released in January, and we welcomed this announcement as we know it will reduce a significant impost for business.

We also welcome the establishment of a new independent agency, Jobs and Skills Australia, to tackle Australia’s burgeoning skills deficit, and future-proof the country’s labour force against recurring worker shortages. This continues to be a priority for business and we will have more to say on this in the lead up to the Federal Government’s Jobs Summit in September.

Another issue on our radar is the threat of foot and mouth disease. As I outlined in a column in the Herald Sun, an outbreak would have catastrophic consequences for Victoria’s agricultural and food manufacturing sectors which are worth nearly $18 billion and employ 146,000 people across the state.

As the biggest supplier of certificates of origin, which businesses must have to export products, the Victorian Chamber will continue to support our producers to leverage trade opportunities particularly in the lucrative Asia-Pacific region.

Finally, it’s been fabulous seeing how businesses are leaning in to assist in reducing the COVID spread. The peak of this current wave can’t be too far away, so let’s keep doing what we can until it passes.

Take care and enjoy the weekend ahead.