Thursday, 19th January, 2006

There was a time when the political interests of manufacturing and commerce were substantially different and the two sections of the business community had their separate industry organisations. Merchants and shopkeepers and others in the tertiary sector normally joined together under the banner of a Chamber of Commerce. Companies that made things formed in to Chambers of Manufactures. Rarely would the twain meet with that basic issue of protection being the great divide for much of the country's history. Chambers of Commerce were free traders looking for the abolition, or at least the lowering, of tariffs and other import restrictions. Chambers of Manufactures wanted governments to increase the protective barriers.

That this business divide has been bridged by the overwhelming victory of the free traders was shown this week by the amalgamation in New South Wales of two venerable industry associations. Australian Business Limited (ABL) was founded in 1885 as the NSW Chamber of Manufactures and has joined with the State Chamber of Commerce that was set up in 1820 as the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. The merged body, provisionally and unimaginatively called ABL-State Chamber, will represent the 5,000 full and 23,000 associate members of ABL spread largely throughout regional and rural NSW with the Chamber's 800 members mainly representing big business in the city.

The agenda of ABL-State Chamber has left behind the protection issue. The new chief executive, Mark Bethwaite, sees his main goal as stopping the slide of business from NSW to other states and Queensland in particular. "NSW is uncompetitive as a place to set up a new business of expand a business," Mr Bethwaite was quoted in The Australian as saying. NSW imposed a payroll tax of 6 per cent starting at a wages bill above $600,000 a year. The starting rate of 4.75 per cent in Queensland had a starting threshold of $850,000 while business in Victoria paid a rate of 5.25 per cent. Compounding the disadvantage for NSW business were workers compensation premiums twice as high as in Queensland.

Industry Associations