Docklands Dollars

By Shane Wylie - Executive Officer, DCC

By the third week of Victoria’s very first lockdown the Docklands Chamber of Commerce (DCC) had a plan in front of the City of Melbourne to recover businesses.

We knew it was not going to be a simple process to exit lockdown. At the time we had no idea we’d still be dealing with them now, but that plan has remained and will be launched this coming month as Docklands Dollars.

For us, the key to initiating people to spend in Docklands is having them come to stay, so that’s where our priority is. We are going to encourage and subsidise people to stay in Docklands and then rebate their spends across any member of the DCC.

Our spend is enormous and couldn’t be achieved without the gracious help of the City of Melbourne and Development Victoria, but that investment will be paid back hundreds of times in our local traders.

Any business in Docklands can get involved so long as they are or become a member of the DCC. The annual membership has also been heavily reduced to just $50 and includes the business listing on our home website – docklandscc.com.au – and our soon-to-be Docklands Dollars website, representations across our socials (an annual reach exceeding 10 million) and advertising in our newsletters.

State furphies

Every time I hear Dan Andrews on the news at present I cringe. Firstly, thinking he’s going to announce one new case and we’re going back into some sort of lockdown. Then just hearing his lies, specifically about businesses returning their employees.

Currently we sit at a legislated maximum of 50 per cent. I walk Docklands every single day and while I’m not privy to the internal numbers of the ANZ or Myer for example, I couldn’t imagine we are anywhere near five per cent of employees back at work and we’re not going to get there any time soon. I understand why the furphies are there – tell the public and business community a positive spin that the economy is returning. But it’s simply not and we have the cliff edge just a few weeks away.

I’m very aware of quite a few businesses who simply can’t operate past JobKeeper. That last payment is going to be their last hurrah •