FrANchise couNcil oF AustrAli A
dear readers,
Welcome to your latest
edition of Business Franchise
magazine.
Franchising is a unique way of doing business
and its success can be measured by the
diversity of the brands and industries where
franchising occurs. As recently stated by our
Chair, the Hon Bruce Billson at the recent
IFA Convention, “the USA may be the home
of franchising, but Australia is the capital of
franchising”.
Our members have chosen to use franchising
as a way of growing their business and we see
our role as making sure that franchising is the
best way for entrepreneurs to build a great idea
into a successful network – a network that
can deliver real economic and social capital at
local, national and international levels.
As a model of doing business, franchising is
successful. We know that we have successful
franchise systems delivering over $146 billion
in annual turnover, through a network of over
72,000 small businesses that employ over
460,000 mums and dads, sons and daughters.
The recent compliance events of the Fair
Work Ombudsman together with the
continuing coverage in the media around
exploited workers and underpayment of lawful
entitlements ensures that there will be a
political response through legislative reform.
Over the past quarter, we have been engaged
with the Government, advocating that as
a business model franchising should be
supported and encouraged, not burdened
by additional liabilities that undermine the
fundamental benefit of a franchising system.Through the efforts of the Chair, the Hon
Bruce Billson and the members of a small
subcommittee of key subject matter experts
led by Director Stephen Giles, the FCA has
been working to ensure your voice is heard
and that franchising as a business model is
understood and valued. These efforts have
been effective in educating the Minister
and the Department as to the threats and
unintended consequences of the proposed
reforms and we achieved a number of changes
that improved the Bill for members.
The Fair Work (Protection of Vulnerable
Workers) Amendment Bill 2017 (‘the Bill’)
was tabled in Parliament on 1 March 2017
and it is fair to say that the Government’s
attempts to protect vulnerable workers
through this piece of legislative drafting has
fallen well short of anything workable for
those businesses that use franchising as their
business model.