It was a pleasure hearing from one of the racing industry’s greats, Jacques Villeneuve, who provided fascinating insights into both his personal and professional journey. Thank you to all who attended yet another successful Grand Prix Breakfast. We hope to see you trackside over the weekend if you’re heading to this iconic Melbourne event.

In other news, the Victorian Chamber is seeking your feedback regarding a surprising decision last year by the Federal Court (WorkPac v Skene), that ruled a casual worker was entitled to annual leave entitlements despite being paid casual leave loadings. This decision has effectively opened the door to unfair ‘double dipping’ which will see employers forced to pay casual workers entitlements to current and former employees, twice.

The Federal Government recognised the disastrous impact this would have on small and family businesses and introduced a regulation to ensure businesses would not be threatened and the jobs of those working for them would be protected. Federal Labor is now trying to reverse this protection by moving a motion to remove this regulation.

Our team has raised this issue with Federal politicians, but now we are calling on our members to assist us in convincing those in Canberra that ‘double dipping’ is wrong and detrimental to businesses.

Please reply to policy@victorianchamber.com.au to tell us how your small business would be impacted if you had to backpay six years of entitlements.

On a final note, last week the Victorian Chamber was pleased to show its support for our long-standing priority to progress the West Gate Tunnel Project, via an open letter to the Victorian Parliament urging them to back this crucial passage of legislation. The letter was formulated by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and supported by prominent industry associations. Click here to view a copy of the letter. The legislation passed 22 votes to 18.