Newsagents and pharmacists are two forever-protected species as far as the coalition is concerned.
This is a quote attributed to Joe Hockey, the former Minister for Small Business in the Howard Government. It’s on Page 12 of the Perspective insert in the Australian Financial Review (Dec 30 – Jan 4).
Joe Hockey and his colleagues demonstrated their commitment to newsagents through their years in office by:
- Facilitating the elimination of exclusive newspaper and magazine distribution territories without compensation for taking away from newsagents this century-old right.
- Driving newsagents to enter into new contracts with publishers and permitting this to be done by newsagents negotiating on their own behalf and not using professional negotiators.
- Allowing poor leadership of newsagents at the time to wipe off more than $100 million dollars of value of newsagent businesses without compensation.
- Permitting a contract relationship for newspapers and magazines which deregulated one side of the transaction and left newsagents with an expensive and inefficient system which was designed for a regulated marketplace.
- Permitting the 865 Government owned Australia Post retail outlets to become more and more like newsagents, moving into areas traditionally serviced well by newsagents.
- Refusing to intervene in 2004 when Australia Post was engaged in what I’d consider grossly unconscionable practices when newsagents tried to establish an alternative bill payment network.
- Refusing to respond to newsagent representations in 2004 about an unfair magazine distribution system which operates at a loss for many newsagents.
Joe Hockey is wrong about newsagents. The Coalition has not demonstrated any concern for newsagents other than hollow words.
That said, we owe our poor handling of deregulation to the two or three newsagents who ran this project on behalf of newsagents. They were not up to the task. The cost of their failure will be felt for years to come.
Footnote: This blog post is not a call for regulation. We needed to move away from the protection of what we had until 1999. However, what we do need is complete deregulation – fair commercial terms around the distribution of newspapers and magazines.
As in Australia, almost the same in the UK.
Governments just don’t consider small business in their decisions and the main reason is we don’t shout with one voice. Too many shop keepers are only interested in their small piece of their action.
Then their are the trade associations that try to protect yesterday because thats what their noisy members seem to want.
Good List
Best wishes for success in 2009.
Steve
Good post-
I want some help in recommending an association that I can join that has the Newsagency channels vitals represented.
The association should be transparent and open, excellent communication facilities.
The association should ideally be a non profit organisation with no commercial activities or investments.
I preferably want to belong to a National Organisation where all other Newsagents in Australia belong to.
When I find that organisation I would like them to:
Represent me in all Newsagency matters which include distribution, delivery, allocation, commission and payments revolving around Distributors and Publishers.
I would like them to represent me in pusuing The Australian Government through the courts and compensating all Newsagents for using Public Monies to create an unfair national competitor to small business and operating outside its mandate or act.
I would like this association to represent me on why Supermarkets receive different term in relation to Magazine delivery & distibution.
I would like this association to represent me via the ACCC on various Newsagent anomalies which include, Gaming issues, Magazine Distribution Issues, State Government tender issues for gaming issues.
Please let me know which association represent you something like the above and I’ll join immediately. Thankyou.
Derek,
Try here;
http://www.inyourdreams.com
or even
http://www.notinourlifetime.com
Smile mate, we will get there if people like you, Mark and others all voice our opinion. Write to your local member, complain to the ACCC, remember the squeaky wheel gets the oil!
Happy New Year everyone!
Derek,
While a little off topic I would note the following;
The Australia Post issue will not be solved through the courts. They are working inside the Act – no court will see otherwise.
Supermarkets (ie. Coles and Woolworths) get different terms because they bring something diffferent to the table. This is not an issue for newsagents. The issue is that newsagent needs to be more business like in the approach and bring something of value to the table if they want more competative terms. We should be looking at Coles and Woolworths and saying “good on them”, “what can we learn from what they are doing”.
The issues I have blogged about relate to policy. The Board of the ANF sacked their CEO and in doing so lost probably the best policy person the organisation has had for many years. Hopefully, the QNF and NANA will make progress on a Secretariat soon and offer newsagents an alternative.
Mark
Mark,
For the record, who were the two or three newsagents who ran the project during deregulation? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Ted,
It was Bob Dean, Denis Hartney and Peter Murdoch.
Mark
Jarryd
In respect to your post, you have your opinions and as always they are respected.
I see it differently and I am frustrated because I cannot belong to an organisation that will represent me and the many Newsagents who are sufferring because the Newsagency Channel is not respected by particular service providers, they are not respected by the Governments that run Federal and State and last but not least they are not respected by the associations that they are members of because all these issues are still outstanding or have not been addressed properly. The proof I have is fragmentation of all current bodies.
Newsagents should be asking themselves why this is the case.
Newsagents need a transparent voice, a united voice to address in my opinion the above issues. Lets do something different and unite quickly.
Mark,
Do you now what the three representing newsagents’ riding instructions were from their members? When you say they failed newsagents, are you saying they acted without regard to their members’ instructions?
Ted,
They did not seek instructions. Indeed, the majority of enwsagents only knew when the discussions were over.
Mark
Bob Dean was just made a Life Member of the ANF for poor leadership, his love of travel paid for newsagents, his love of wine paid for by others and for his love of