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It is an honour to be here at the Restaurant and Catering Australia Fine Wine Partners and Henschke Lifetime Achievers Dinner as Minister for Tourism.
These awards recognise excellence and send the message that restaurants and catering can be a career for life.
A career for life
Restaurants and catering – like tourism more broadly – offer an enormous range of employment opportunities and career possibilities. Diverse careers as illustrated by the men and women we honour tonight.
Career diversity is an important message for the 75,000 Australians employed in restaurants, cafes, pubs, clubs and bars. And careers in restaurants and catering can lead to broader careers in the tourism industry as the two go hand in glove.
The success and prosperity of the restaurant and catering industry is built on the success of tourism – and vice versa.
Restaurant and takeaway meals accounted for 15 per cent of overall tourism consumption and 19.6 per cent of domestic tourism spending. Essentially, if you increase tourism you increase your bottom line.
Skills shortage
Flexibility of the industry can help it overcome the skills shortage by accessing workers who need flexibility.
The skills shortage hits the bottom line of restaurants throughout Australia. The Australian Government is addressing the issue as a national priority.
The Government will create 450,000 training places over the next four years and 820,000 training places over the next decade. Most of the 450,000 places will lead to a higher-level qualification, such as at the Certificate III level or above.
We are not waiting to act:
In January 2008, the Prime Minister pledged 20,000 additional training places by April of this year.
These measures will create the skilled workforce of tomorrow and helps those currently unemployed or underemployed along with older Australians who may wish to return to the workforce.
In December 2007, COAG agreed to address education, reskilling and incentives to increase workforce participation. This leads to lower wage pressure and reduces wage-driven inflation.
These measures will have an immediate benefit on your profitability, even non-economic measures such as accreditation.
Accreditation
The aim of accreditation is quite simple: to give consumers confidence. Confidence when they travel means they will know what they are getting for their money and will make planning easier.
If consumers know what to expect, they will know what they can spend on other items such as meals out.
The restaurants and catering industry has always enthusiastically embraced innovation; I know you will be a valuable partner in future accreditation initiatives.
As tonight's Lifetime Achievers will attest, in the restaurant and catering industry, you are only as good as your last meal or service.
This makes their achievements all the more remarkable.
I urge everyone here to read about the lives of the men and women we are honouring tonight.
Their stories, experiences and lives give real insight into the industry they have helped create, develop and enhance.
I congratulate you all on a lifetime of achievement.
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The 2007 Restaurant and Catering Australia Fine Wine Partners and Henschke Lifetime Achievers are:
ACT – Sylvia McCoy
NSW – Mal Reid
QLD – Gino Merlo
SA – Brian Lawes
VIC – Hermann Schneider
WA – Frank Sabbadini
Young Achiever – Kristian Livolsi
Note: The 2007 Lifetime Achievers were announced in November 2007 and honoured in March 2008.