Jess Talks - May 2023
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It has been a busy few months getting our feet under the desk and Mike and I have been working with the Local Buy team to look at how we can better support councils and suppliers.
Like councils and many of our suppliers, we are in the business planning phase, working on next year’s plan to ensure we are achieving the outcomes of our strategic plan. Just last week we held our first Local Buy strategy day which was a great success; bringing the team together in a collaborative way to talk about where we have been and where we are going.
We took the opportunity to kick off the day with a session on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, presented by Michelle MacFadyen, a Mental Health First Aid and Workplace Wellbeing Coach. Many may not know that Michelle was actually the inaugural CEO of Local Buy and took the team through the history and origins of establishing Local Buy, what the vision was at the time and also the challenges and opportunities. Ironically, many of those same challenges exist today.
Last week we held the South East Queensland Procurement Summit, in partnership with Scenic Rim Regional Council in Beaudesert. It was a fantastic day, and this was reinforced by the exceptional feedback received from attendees. The next Summits are to be held in Blackall and Rockhampton. I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank those councils for partnering with us to deliver these 2023 Summits, which are of tremendous value to our councils, and the various speakers who have shared their time with us to provide topical and meaningful content to provide a really great agenda.
One of the impending changes we would like to take the opportunity to share is the criteria around the Local Buy exemption applicable to the Supplier Verification Fee (SVF). The SVF exemption is for those businesses that need it most. Previously, Local Buy had provided an exemption in line with the ATO definition of small business and this was to support small business recovery from the impacts of COVID and only ever intended as a temporary support mechanism for small businesses.
The adoption of the exemption has been significantly higher than expected and highly successful in supporting over 1,800 small businesses, Indigenous businesses and social enterprises. To ensure we provide increased value to all of our suppliers, Local Buy has decided to change the criteria supporting this exemption.
Further information on the Supplier Verification Fee, the value that businesses receive from paying this nominal fee and the approach that will be taken by Local Buy in terms of when these changes will come into effect, can be found here
Another important piece of information I would like to announce is the redevelopment of the Local Buy website. This work is underway, and I look forward to sharing a ‘new and much improved’ website that will support councils, our suppliers (existing and future) and other organisations in navigating Local Buy. This is anticipated to ‘go live’ in August and we welcome your feedback as we move forward with this improvement; a direct response from ‘you’ telling ‘us’ that Local Buy needs to improve our communication so that you can better understand how Local Buy can support your organisation. Please bear with us during the interim, as we consolidate 3 different websites into 1. For the time being the only website that will continue to be updated is the main Local Buy website www.localbuy.net.au.
There are a number of fantastic articles in this May edition of Local Buy News from both our team and a number of feature writers that will provide value to councils and suppliers alike, enjoy the read and thank you for your support.
Reach out to me at any time via email or call me on 0455 081 848
Jess
