Business News - WA
At Close of Business podcast September 17 2024
All the latest business news from WA deliver daily, at close of business news briefing. Good afternoon and welcome to the Outclothes of Business podcast. I'm Sam Jones and I'll be reading your Tuesday headlines. Andrew MLA David Templeman has become the latest WA Labor stalwart, step down, ahead of 2025, announcing his retirement after more than 20 years in state politics. Announcing his plans to not contest the upcoming state election in March, Mr Templeman was accompanied by Premier Roger Cook at Dumas House this morning. Mr Templeman said he was finally coming home to spend more time with his family in Manjar after more than two decades in state politics. Mr Templeman is the WA Minister for Culture and the Arts, Sports and Recreation, International Education and Heritage, who was elected to State Parliament in 2001 as Member for Mandro. Joined by Premier Cook in a typically jovial press conference outside of Dumas House this morning, Mr Templeman said he was keen to spend more time with his family in the jurisdiction he had represented since the turn of the century. And to our regions now, WA's beef industry lobby group has decried the state's processing industry at Monopoly after paddock to plate farmers in the southwest, lost access to the last large abattoir servicing their needs. Dardenup Butchering Company last week gave four weeks notice to small producers it would cease contract kills citing capacity constraints which were putting pressure on its ability to maintain its 270 strong workforce. Craig Moston Group's Bumbry-based V&V Walsh made a similar call earlier this year to cut small contract clients as it could no longer fulfil their requirements. The end of small contract kills means many southwest farmers no longer have a viable avenue to process and retain ownership of their own products. Other options are either too small to take on what is likely hundreds of extra carcasses per week or too far away to make commercial sense. And finally, the number of women running ASX-300 companies has stagnated in the past year, with a survey also showing multiple WA companies have no women in their executive leadership group. The latest survey by Chief Executive Women found the number of female CEOs in the S&P ASX-300 has decreased from 26 in 2023 to 25 in 2024. The female Chief Executives include two from WA, Woodside Energy Boss, Magoneal and Linus Chief, Amanda Luckazi. It also found that just one in eight newly appointed Chief Executives were women, down from one in four the previous year. The survey found some progress, with 27% of ASX-300 companies achieving Agenda Balance Executive Leadership Team. WA companies leading on this front included South-32, IGO and Arifura Rare Earths. That's all for today's headlines, you can read more at businessnews.com.au. Coming up on the podcast, Jack McInne and Lyft Clerk discuss Margaret River artists opening up their studios. I'm Michael Thompson, join the Nine News Team for the day's biggest stories and breaking news from across Perth, Australia and the world. The most trusted reporters on the ground with exclusive stories you won't see anywhere else, past WA's most comprehensive weather and the latest sports news with the inside scoop on the AFL. The Finance Editor Chris Coler also brings you the latest news on business from interest rates to the stock market, Nine News, Your News, Night Live 6 on Nine and Nine Now. Welcome back to our Closer Business, I'm Jack McInne, today I'm joined by Lyft Clerk. Liv, how are you? I'm going well, how are you? I'm well thank you. Good. Liv, for the recent edition of the Business News Magazine, you wrote a piece about an open art studio event in the Southwest. This event has been running since 2014, ten years this year. Can you share a little more about its growth since then? Of course. The annual Margaret River region, Open Studios, was established to create a unique opportunity for the public, the community, to enter artists' studios and often their homes to watch them in action. In 2014, when it debuted, it had 78 artists and between 500 and 1,000 visitors for that first year. Skip forward to last year, it's 10th anniversary and the Open Studios attracted about 15,000 visitors to the Southwest and accumulated a total of 145,000 studio visits. The event has also won several awards over that time for its impact on the arts and its influence on the local economy as well, including its gold win out to the Perth Airport WA Tourism Awards 2022 in the festivals and events category. This year, the Open Studios has a lineup of 144 artists located from Bosselton to Augusta, who opened their studios to the public across 16 days from September 7th to the 22nd. Of those featured artists this year, there were 30 new participants and 12 who have never missed a year since the event's first year in operation. In terms of economic impact, the event contributes about $11 million to the region. Wow. There's quite a significant impact. Massive growth as well. Yeah. Just the idea of going into people's homes, potentially, and have a look at the artistic process. Very interesting. You spoke with Jim Davies, who's the chair of the Margaret River region, Open Studios. What did he have to say about the value of the event for those artists that are taking part? While the event is clearly a great opportunity for artists to showcase their work and for emerging artists to also get their name out to the public, Jim said the Open Studios also provided the livelihood for some of those artists. He said it was an opportunity to make direct sales, especially for those without gallery contracts, which is most of them. Jim said that there was an average of $2 million worth of art sold across the two weeks that the event takes place. It makes quite a big impact. Before the Open Studios came along, apparently, there wasn't really a cohesive arts community in the Southwest region. It was more individual artists working by themselves independently. Before the visit aside of things, Jim told me that the event has just created this rare chance for people to come together and see the artists and their creative process in places that they would normally have restriction for access to, I suppose. Those places include, obviously, the art studios and the artists' homes as well, but in some cases, the art has actually been shown at unique and pretty creative locations such as a farm or a back garden, and in previous years, there were even artists set up in more unique places like an old ice cream factory, a disused water tank, and a railway carriage, which is pretty interesting. Overall, basically, it's a three-way win, so obviously the artists' win through the sales, but also making connections and enjoying a community of like-minded individuals. Visitors win by experiencing a unique and creative event, viewing beautiful work in beautiful locations, and then the overall community and region wins through the economic benefits and more vibrancy through increased visitation as well. Very good. So you spoke to Karen Seaman, who's the secretary of the Open Studios Organising Committee and a professional artist who's, I believe, has taken part in the event in her own right. So she's a participant every year since it started. Why is she so passionate about this one? There are several reasons why Karen loves this event and has been so eager to be involved for so long, but one of the main reasons that stood out to me when we spoke was a comment she made about the event's inclusivity. She said the Open Studios involved artists of all levels and practising any art forms. So from young emerging artists right through to masters in their field, Karen told me this was really important, not just for the obvious reason of inclusion and kindness, but also because it strengthened and diversified the art sector overall. She said it was particularly helpful for people having difficulty connecting with professional galleries as well, but also allowed for continued evolution of the Open Studios, which is obviously key to engaging and creating an inspiring event for everyone who is involved. Karen also spoke to that economic impact, mentioning that many people travelled down from Perth or other places in WA, Australia, and sometimes even abroad as well. And she said when people go to the Southwest for that event, they tend to spend two or three days there at a minimum, sometimes longer. And that obviously results in expenditure and in term more economic benefit. Yeah, it sounds like a really cool event. I'd love to go to AR, an exhibition in a train carriage though. Yeah, right. That'd be really cool. Live great work with this piece. Our listeners can find it online as of today or in the most recent edition of Business News. Thanks for joining me, showing your insights and have a great day. Thank you. The latest business news, Deliver Daily. Subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. For all the latest business news, visit businessnews.com.au. [MUSIC] (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]