Businesses deserve our empathy, not ridicule
OF course Peter Beattie would deny that GOLDOC has any case to answer for the damage done to Gold Coast businesses during the Commonwealth Games (GCB, June 6).
That is his style. There is no doubt the Games were a terrific success for the athletes and attendees, and GOLDOC deserves a “well done” for that, but it’s hard to understand how they got the business impacts so wrong, given that there had been a study done months before that predicted the outcome that we saw and given that other cities to have hosted the Games would have had a similar story to tell.
Why wasn’t there learning from prior experience?
Despite Mr Beattie’s defensive rhetoric, the undeniable fact is that GOLDOC did not manage the expectations about trading patterns well. The false impression created by the preGames publicity resulted in disaster for local businesses.
The impact of the Games was not felt for only for 11 or 12 days, but for many weeks. And it is not just a “few whingers” – I am yet to speak to anyone in a retail, hospitality or tourism business who was not adversely affected. The usual school holiday trade did not materialise, and Games visitors did not take up that slack.
Whilst Mr Beattie may not realise it from the comfort of his taxpayer-funded superannuation and the other lucrative gigs he gets to support his lifestyle, many businesses work on very low profit margins. They provide little more than job security for their owners, not massive profits. Of course, these businesses are vulnerable to any disruption to their trading pattern. We saw how many went under or diminished in viability, never to recover, during light rail construction from Southport to Broadbeach. I know of some hard-working people who lost everything, including their homes, when these businesses closed.
The marginality of these businesses should not make their owners an object of callous comments of scorn and ridicule. They are showing some backbone by having a go and providing for themselves and their families. They employ others and generate economic activity for their landlords and suppliers, supporting workers in those business too. They contribute to our economy and Gold Coast lifestyle. The official response should be empathetic and constructive, not insults.
It’s time we had a conversation about how many new retail and restaurant premises are being approved for development by this council. There are too many vacant premises everywhere you look. Keith Woods is right in raising that question in his column (GCB, June 6) on the proposed new casino.
The council should be approving new commercial premises on a “needs” basis, but there are too many vacant premises to support a “need” for new premises in many areas. Many new premises remain vacant for a year or two before a tenant can be found, and often what we see is simply a transference of a tenant from existing premises to new, so there is no net gain to the community.
New premises often grant long rent-free periods and fitout contributions, creating an unsustainable and unfair incentive which distorts market forces. When the rentfree period is over, many of these new businesses become unsustainable.
This continual expansion of premises puts pressure on existing businesses, sometimes making them unviable to continue. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fitout costs are wasted. The landlords of existing premises also suffer a drop in income and asset value. They can’t afford to refresh their premises, so they deteriorate and can look shabby, causing a loss of street appeal and making them harder to rerent. Sometimes the banks sell them up. It’s the law of unintended consequences at work, but it is no good for anyone in the longer term.
Is this continuous game of musical chairs the way to go? Constantly thinning out the customer base of existing businesses? Starving them of sufficient income to support themselves and their employees and to reinvest in their businesses to keep them fresh and contemporary? Sending people to the wall? Shattering hopes and dreams?
The council seems to think that the only measure of economic and social success of the city is the Bjelke-Petersen index of the number of cranes in the sky at any given time – the more the better. I don’t think the community shares that view. I think we all want a more economically sustainable and socially responsible vision than that.
Deborah Kelly is secretary and steering committee coordinator of Save Surfers Paradise Inc.