Page 968 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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need to be told through legislation how to look after their staff. Recent instances of the voluntary bonuses paid by Grenda bus services and Kennards Hire to their staff highlight the way in which these businesses relate to their staff and the value they actually put on the staff. They understand that when you have staff they are an asset and they are to be treasured. Again, family businesses simply ask the government to get out of their way.
A broader area of concern to family businesses relates to such matters as governance and succession planning. A survey of family businesses in 2011 found that two-thirds of these businesses want to retain family control of the business. Control is equated with ownership and the ability to control decision making in the boardroom. Further, control is seen as ensuring that the culture of a business is maintained and that the businesses continue to reflect the values and attitudes of the family. As well, control is seen as enabling a business to sustain their competitive advantage in the marketplace. While this is not necessarily an area of policy concern for government, there may be consequential issues which arise as family businesses seek to deal with orderly succession arrangements and associated matters.
I would like to spend a few moments highlighting some of the family businesses that we have in the ACT. I must emphasise that the businesses which I mention are simply representative of the range of family businesses operating in the ACT. They can vary from very small to very large enterprises. For instance, we have Bink cement. The entity has been operating for more than 50 years. How many of us have purchased Bink concrete goods when we have been developing our gardens and our yards? Cosmorex is a third-generation business and a mecca for those that love their coffee in the ACT. National Capital Motors has been operating for nearly 30 years. And who can forget Campbell’s TV advertisements over so many years?
We have Canberra motorcycles. The Canberra motorcycles story is a tough story. I think we would all remember the family tragedy. Mike Houston continued to build this business in honour of those who passed. For many years it was the landmark there at the corner of Newcastle and Isa Streets in Fyshwick. Again, it is a resilient family business.
Locally we have the Civic Shoe Repair Service, a business that has been operating for some 40 years, and which has actually benefited, it claims, from the global economic and financial crisis as people repair their shoes rather than buy new shoes.
To show the diversity, we have the Jabal Halal Market, which specialises in high quality halal meats and fresh fruits and vegetables. You can go out to Canty’s Bookshop, which is busily reinventing itself in the face of the growth of e-books and other competitive pressures. Somebody known to all of us, Karen Doyle, a former attendant here at the Assembly, has a family business called Grave Keepers, slowly building its presence in the marketplace.
You have only to look at Cusack’s furniture. How many of us have been to a Cusack’s store over the decades to purchase that bit of furniture that we needed for the home? You can look at Gulson Canberra, still located in the same spot in Newcastle Street in Fyshwick. Many of us will have fond memories of looking longingly at those
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