DR MARCUS BAI
DR. BAI ELECTION CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Dr. Bai and his campaign team are planning to visit 200 traders from local and multicultural background in Hobart during the 100-day election campaign. Listening to the concerns of our small businesses, and making a commitment to improve the commerce environment of Hobart while protecting our heritage city, has been a key focus of Dr.Bai’s policy aspirations.
In September, Dr. Bai was invited by the Salamanca Market Stall Holders Association to speak at Town Hall. Marcus had proposed the following in his speech:
Part_1 is dedicated to helping Salamanca Market to create a personalised Tasmanian brand identity. And continue to promote the Salamanca Market brand to the world as the best artisan market in the Southern Hemisphere.
Part_2 Dr. Bai also advocates the reinstatement of free city bus loop to connect the city centre - ferry terminal-Salamanca. Hobart is the only capital city in Australia without free city loop transport. Having this service would not only bring more people to Salamanca, it would also greatly benefit our local residents, particularly the senior citizens.
Part_3 Dr. Bai has also discussed the tourism positioning strategy of Hobart. He believes that the current strategy is focusing too much on “Premium” and “Eliteness” of the Hobart brand. While this has turned away working-class families from interstate. A brand that focuses on “Heritage”, “Environment” and “Affordable" to regular Australian middle class families would bring more consistent and quality tourism traffic from the domestic market.
Part_4 Dr. Bai has acknowledged the deterioration of commerce environment in and around Hobart CBD. “I know businesses are not as good as they say on the newspaper” he said, “And we must acknowledge this and take real actions to address this”.
Dr. Bai visits CBD traders and IT companies from the multicultural community
Issues raised by the small business:
1️⃣ The business owners hope that the Hobart City Council could speed up the processing of business-related licenses, etc. The current processing times for these licenses are too long and this has been frustrating for new businesses.
2️⃣ Glenorchy City Council has invited state government employees to walk into the community and small businesses, to help small businesses understand how to apply for relevant government support and grants. Hobart City Council had not been providing such services. New traders and entrepreneurs were unable to truly understand what supports are available from different levels of government and had missed out on a lot of opportunities.
3️⃣ In the Melville Street Car Park, there is only 30 minutes of free parking for the Senior citizens, which is not enough time. The traders hope the free parking for the Senior Citizens can be extended to 2 hours.
Dr. Bai believes that providing additional training and support to the university graduates, residents, and small business owners to help them understand the various government grants and programs for individuals and businesses can greatly help our community members and small businesses to receive the support that are already available.
Dr. Bai visits Hobart traders from the Korean-Australian community
Issues discussed including:
1️⃣Hobart city has not been promoting effectively during the school holiday periods. The traders believed that Hobart had not been the most desirable tourism destination for tourists from other states as it did not have a “unique selling point”.
2️⃣The government should not be promoting “working from home” as it has negative economic impact, particularly for the CBD small businesses.
3️⃣Insufficient parking spaces, the rise of cost of food and labour, the increase of council rates and land tax had been putting lots of pressure on our small businesses.
Visiting North Hobart traders of multicultural background (Malaysian Australian)
Issues raised including:
1️⃣The dramatic rise of insurance costs (for no obvious reason!), Hobart City Council should be liaising local insurance providers (such as RACT) to provide Hobart residents and small businesses discounted rate for insurance.
2️⃣The Hobart City Council should provide legal assistance to assist small businesses to protect their rights.
3️⃣The Hobart City Council needs to investigate all complaints thoroughly before taking action to put pressure on just small businesses.
4️⃣The parking issues in North Hobart need to be addressed. There have been parking wardens issuing infringement notices at 8pm in some days. The customers were affected by this, and many had chosen to shop elsewhere.
5️⃣The City Council should strengthen the professional training for employees to better serve businesses and residents.
Visiting Hobart traders: Café operated by multicultural community members (Vietnamese Australian)
Issues raised including:
1️⃣During the post-epidemic period, a large number of companies encouraged their employees to work from home, the flow of people in the city center decreased during the day, and the daytime turnover of businesses was greatly affected.
2️⃣The tourism industry in Hobart is wrongly positioned, it is too biased to promote high-end tourism, and the high cost affect the recovery of the tourism industry.
3️⃣The Hobart City Council could have been more efficient on the approval of relevant planning applications (such as residential home constructions and shop renovations) . We need more houses to be built as quickly as possible.
4️⃣Businesses hope that the Hobart government can attract more cruise ships to the heart of Hobart to boost the economy.
IN AUGUST：Visiting several businesses in the Sandy Bay area, listen to the concerns of small businesses, and discuss what can the Hobart City Council do to help our traders.
Issues raised including:
1️⃣Foot traffic in the Sandy Bay area has decreased during the day, which had affected the daytime trading of retail shops and restaurants near Magnet Court. The business environment in Sandy Bay has been worrying.
2️⃣The city council has inconsistent requirements on the hygiene standards for the interiors and equipment of the shops. The policy is "one size fits all". During the epidemic, the small businesses have already been facing various pressures on rising food cost and labour, and some simply cannot afford the expensive equipment maintenance and upgrades, as well as the cost of professional cleaning.
3️⃣It has been very challenging to hire part time/casual staff members, many small business owners had to work very long hours to keep the business running.
Based on the above feedback, the city council needs to carefully plan the future development of Sandy Bay area and come up with practical solutions to help Sandy Bay businesses. In addition, the council needs to ensure consistencies in their health and safety requirements, be flexible at times for small businesses that needs help.
IN AUGUST：Visiting traders in North Hobart and CBD (Harrington street)
Issues raised including:
1️⃣Traffic congestion in North Hobart area, unreasonable parking time allowed for on street parking even when it is not busy. Employees could not find parking to work during the lunch trade.
2️⃣The traders suggest city council to increase the allowed on-street parking time to 2 hours during the day and issue parking permit for employees working in the North Hobart businesses.
3️⃣The Centrepoint car park should extend operating hours until 8pm at night to help alleviate parking pressures for residents and businesses in the CBD.
4️⃣The North Hobart traders had proposed to council to create a personalised North Hobart Business District and promote this brand to increase traffic from interstate tourists.
IN AUGUST: Visiting Hobart CBD Liverpool street small businesses
Issues raised including:
1️⃣The senior parking spaces along Liverpool street had been removed, this has made it very difficult for disabled people and seniors to park and shop.
2️⃣Sunday parking has been expensive, the foot traffic had been shocking, many traders have no choice but to close their doors on Sunday. The small businesses need free parking on Sundays!
3️⃣The small businesses are hoping that the City Council could provide some assistance to reduce the cost for recyclable packaging, council rates, gas connections and unnecessary non-critical equipment upgrades.
IN JULY: Visiting local small businesses in Elizabeth Street
Key issues raised by the small businesses:
1️⃣Parking has been a headache for Elizabeth Street and had affected many businesses.
2️⃣The design and seat allocations along Elizabeth Street had not been properly planned by the authorities.
3️⃣The small businesses are hoping to have more rubbish bins placed along the street to reduce littering.
4️⃣Too many unused “loading zones” which could have the potential to be converted to on-street parking.
