This month, the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, handed down his 2016-17 Budget, putting small business in the driver’s seat. The government’s plan includes cutting company tax, expanding the instant asset write-off, and measures to create new, higher-paid jobs. With an election confirmed for July, it will be interesting to see how the new changes will affect the family businesses in our FBA community, but time will tell.
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls, who has recently been promoted from his small business portfolio will no doubt explain specific changes in more detail at this Fridays QLD State Conference.

As well as being a month for the budget, this May marks my first anniversary with FBA. Leaving an air conditioning and commercial contractor’s membership based association and entering one that represents family businesses was a totally different experience for me. The most marked difference being the openness that our members display to each other – there is no competition or holding back of information, but rather a complete willingness to share and educate within the FBA community. When putting together the QLD State Conference program, this sharing of information was even more evident. The committee “went to work” contacting the people they knew could represent the topics for our theme: embracing the changing landscape, and within 3 weeks, we had all speakers locked in. Where else can you have the leader of the opposition and John Wagner speaking in the same afternoon on all things family business! 

In other FBA news, the national conference program is almost complete and the marketing has commenced. We also have a list of fantastic events locally with a meet the owner at Burleigh Brewing scheduled for June, and a Chairman’s Lunch with Richard Malouf as our key speaker scheduled for July. If you would like any further information on FBA events and activities please head to our website.

Until next time

Martine Poulain
QLD State Manager