BMAA COLUMN - MAY 2022

SuperExpo 2023: We are excited to report that the SuperExpo 2023 Committee has been formed and the first meeting has been held. The seven-member committee met in person on 31 March 2022 and commenced work on what will be the biggest industry event since 2019.  

Due to the pandemic, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to postpone SuperExpo for a year. SuperExpo 2023 will be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre (GCCEC) from 7th – 9th June 2023.   

All members of the Blind Manufacturers’ Association of Australia and the Specialised Textiles Association of Australia will be contacted in early August and stand bookings will commence from that time. Initially the bookings will only be open to members of the two associations, before being opened up to the industry at a later date.  

Training: Readers of WFA will be familiar with the BMAA’s focus upon and longstanding commitment to training for our industry. And while it has been encouraging to observe the outcomes of our commitment in the expansion of training and the business benefit to our BMAA member blind, awning and shutter businesses in terms of efficiencies, productivity, and minimisation of waste, the BMAA Board is also planning and looking forward to the next development stage in training for our industry

The themes of the BMAA’s training initiatives with its training partner The Frontline Group in 2022 are: relevance, participation, expansion, and opportunity across our three training streams of production/ manufacturing, installation, and customer service. We have noticed that while our training participation in production remains very significant, we are also expanding training uptake in installation and systems while the relevance of our leadership and mentoring programs is also seen as a significant opportunity.

Many businesses in our industry will be aware of the BMAA’s reaching out to advise the opportunity available through the Federal Government’s investment in training and employment opportunities. I am pleased to advise that because of this outreach by the BMAA training initiative that individual businesses have collectively secured $2.8 million in government assistance through the Boosting Apprenticeships Commencements program. With some 240 apprentices now actively employed and training across our industry, the BMAA is pleased that it has been able to advocate and generate this benefit to the advantage of our industry.

Many in the industry and BMAA members will have noted matters of relevance and opportunity for our industry in the recent Federal Budget. The BMAA will be actively examining these opportunities on behalf of industry. We are of course currently also now in a federal election in which the focus is on productivity, domestic manufacturing, and self-sufficiency. While we have experienced the most challenging of times these last two years, the way forward appears to be full of multiple decisions, regulatory impact and licensing, low unemployment, and the requirement for productivity and efficiency. In monitoring these trends and their impact on our industry, the BMAA is committed, among other actions, to training as a key strategy in navigating this path ahead.

National Construction Code – Fire Rating: During the past two years, BMAA has lobbied heavily on behalf of the industry in relation to changes to the National Construction Code (NCC). The exemption clause that applied to awnings and blinds relating to fire regulations in the NCC was deleted, which means that technically any blind or awning fitted to any building upper floor of Class 2 – 9 buildings does not comply.

BMAA engaged a firm of fire engineers to perform testing, and these results formed part of the BMAA’s submission to the Australian Building Codes Board to have the NCC altered. Over the past two years, BMAA has written to the Australian Building Codes Board, to the individual members of the Board and to the respective State Government Ministers in each State who are responsible for building works. BMAA has now been able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with the Australian Building Codes Board in Canberra on 13 April, where BMAA will put forward the industry’s case in person.  

This issue is a huge concern to our industry and BMAA is working hard in an endeavour to find a resolution. The BMAA can only keep protecting and promoting our industry if it is supported by the industry. Companies wishing to join our association can phone our office on (07) 3801 8811 or join via the BMAA website: https://bmaa.net.au/become-a-member-of-the-bmaa/