Posted in Editorial

Few people in small and medium sized businesses understand what is about to descend upon them with Federal Labor’s new 500 page plus Industrial Relations Loophole Bill. Under this Bill employing subcontractors becomes close to illegal and, for the first time, a union can walk into a business that has only one employee and issue dictatorial orders. Unions now have the power to tell you how to run your business. While the Government claims to be targeting big business it is all encompa...

This time of the year is the season for Awards, all the business and industry associations hold their annual awards recognising excellence and achievement. Some are popularity contests run by organisations for their own self-interest. Others are genuine in that they engage people who know what they are talking about as judges. In recent months the Hunter division of the Housing Industry Association ran their awards with Umina based builder, Evolving Construction taking out the Hunter Home o...

The history of tourism on the Central Coast goes back more than 80 years.  To a time when Sydney’s blue-collar workers packed up their tents, hooked up their caravans and spent the summer school holidays across the whole of the region. Camping areas and caravan parks dotted the coastline from Umina to Budgewoi. The people who came here on holiday were not wealthy, so it was a cheap way to get away and spend the Christmas and Easter holidays.  Although most camping areas and...

The 2024 Local Government elections will be held next year on the 14th of September bringing to a close three years during which Central Coast Council has been under Administration. It goes without saying that the few short years in which the amalgamated Council was run by those fifteen elected councillors headed up by Mayor Jane Smith was a disaster beyond belief. Of course, it was a disaster waiting to happen, with fifteen councillors from five disparate areas called Wards and most with n...

Our front cover story for this month is a report on one of the Central Coast’s oldest manufacturers, the Chamberlain Group, and their confidence in investing $28 million in a new facility at Somersby in conjunction with the Central Coast’s largest manufacturer and property owner the Borg Group. Chamberlain is a textbook case in the future of manufacturing in Australia and on the Central Coast.   A global manufacturing giant, they acquired local manufacturer Grifco in 20...