Yesterday’s Victorian State Budget and today’s Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry budget luncheon provided some encouraging news and discussion for local industry and workers, but there’s a gap we can’t ignore.
Key highlights for our clients and the communities we work with:
✅ Local Jobs First
Resourcing the Office of the Local Jobs First Commissioner is a meaningful commitment. Add in continued support for the Fair Jobs Code, and there’s a clear signal that procurement with integrity, buying local and treating workers fairly, matters. This funding comes in the context of the Local Jobs First Amendment Act 2025 which introduced objectives for Aboriginal businesses and regional SME’s. Funding is also expected to strengthen monitoring and enforcement of policy compliance. This reflects the uplift we’ve seen first-hand in recent months, in our work with ICN Victoria and our work with clients seeking help with reporting and compliance within their own operations and throughout their supplier networks on Victorian projects.
✅ A Victorian Renewable Energy TAFE Centre of Excellence
Support for the centre at Gippsland TAFE (with hubs in Ballarat and Warrnambool), plus upgrades at Holmesglen’s Chadstone campus. From our work in the Gippsland region and across Victoria on Renewable Energy projects, we know this is the kind of investment needed to help transition workers into the new energy economy and build a strong, skilled workforce.
✅ Gippsland Trades and Labour Council
In another win for the Gippsland region, funding is provided to support the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council in delivering place-based programs that develop skills and reconnect those who are unemployed or experiencing long-term unemployment with education and training.
✅ Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal at the Port of Hastings
Funding is provided to progress environmental approval activities and the procurement process to develop the Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal at the Port of Hastings to support the Government’s commitment to the generation of cheaper, cleaner electricity from offshore wind power. This initiative contributes to the Department of Transport and Planning’s Ports and
Freight output.
✅ Safer and fairer apprenticeships
Improved safety, support and higher completion rates for apprentices, means employers have greater access to the talent they need to complete projects on time. Good outcomes for apprentices means good outcomes for the industries that depend on them, and higher productivity moving forward.
These initiatives create real opportunities, but only for the businesses that know how to access them, respond to them, and build the internal capability to deliver on them. We commend the budget’s inclusion of the Small Business Activation Fund and a peppering of other measures, but there was no significant funding to help businesses understand and act on these opportunities. We know the complexities of policy compliance, even with well-meaning policy, can stifle progress on the positive outcomes these initiatives are intended to achieve. Modernisation of policy and complementary frameworks, like the Social Procurement Framework, would go a long way to supporting growth and resilience across all sectors.
If you’re a business with commitments to meet under the Local Jobs First Policy, inclusive employment, apprentices and skills support, Social Procurement or Indigenous procurement and want to understand what this budget might mean for you and your operations, lets chat.
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