ENTREPRENEURS ARE CITY’S FUTURE AND MUST BE SUPPORTED

GREEN shoots promising new beginnings are sprouting across our beautiful city.

We are witnessing homegrown, homemade, Gold Coast-based products, rising from micro businesses starting in the homes, garages and backstreets of our city.

How proud do we feel when we pick up a product and see that it is Gold Coast-made? We have a natural affinity with produce and products that come from our own area.

It made me think of all the wonderful innovations, creations and opportunities emerging to recreate, rebuild and reimagine our most precious city – our home, the Gold Coast.

Mayor Tom Tate recently delivered a strong message to encourage young people to innovate and create businesses from their garages – a reminder that Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and others followed similar paths.

When considering what it means to be a true Gold Coaster, for me it isn’t just living and working here. It includes enjoying the natural beauty that surrounds us, an environment and climate that maybe we take for granted.

As a true Gold Coaster, how do we support our local businesses?

It was alarming to read earlier in the week that the Gold Coast was the worst hit regional city in Australia, with 10 per cent (30,500) of jobs expected to be lost by the end of June. Our economy is suffering and it needs help.

The hardest hit areas all related to tourism – one of the beacons of our city.

With the borders still closed domestically and the future return of international visitors unknown, it is the hospitality, tourism and leisure industries that need our greatest support.

Most immediately however, is the other pillar of our city – construction. This core part of our economy has always generated jobs and without it our city will grind to a halt and the unemployment figures will rise beyond 10 per cent.

More than ever before, the community needs to work as one to support all those businesses that contribute to keeping our economy alive – small, large and family-based operations that have the courage to reopen their doors to generate income and jobs.

Our city leaders have to invest and ignite the infrastructure projects that will contribute to the longevity of our city.

Now is the time to build for our future.

All layers of government and institutions need to come together and remove barriers to entry to encourage those risking everything they have to create job opportunities. Local government red tape must go, there must be stimulus packages, assistance to existing businesses to stay operating, and encouragement opportunities for new businesses.

It is time for our civic leaders and institutions to help young people create their own futures and follow their dreams.

We have to start at the grassroots level and, as active consumers, each of us has a part to play to give back to our city by supporting our local businesses.

In this rebuilding process, let’s elevate our branding of the Gold Coast as the perfect lifestyle.

This is our moment to shine and capitalise on our radiant city as an unparalleled place to live, work and holiday, but we need to have the tools and infrastructure ready to support an expected migration to a newly revived Gold Coast.

I am certain our friends from the southern states have looked with envy at how fortunate our region has been throughout this pandemic, with a first-class health system and a climate that has made it easier for every household to manage through the past two months of hibernation.

As we reflect on how fortunate we are to enjoy a lifestyle that truly offers the best in the world, now is the time to urgently and actively support locals as they rebuild their businesses and help keep people gainfully employed, and for the green shoots of new and exciting businesses to emerge, with the possibilities of being a future global icon.