42
LIGHTING
Governments at all levels interested in energy
productivity should be looking to lighting.
Independent research has demonstrated that
the average household in Australia using lighting
equipment that would have been considered
standard only a decade ago can recoup the
investment costs of new generation LED
products so that authorities can be pressed to
take appropriate action before a tragedy occurs.
Restructure at Lighting Council
With my appointment earlier this year as CEO
of Lighting Council Australia, the Board of the
organisation requested a review of operations
and this has resulted in a number of significant
changes and terms of personnel and objectives.
The organisation is now upgrading its presence
in the Parliamentary sphere – an area that has
not traditionally been allocated resources at
Lighting Council Australia+.
Lighting Council Australia has met with Ministers
and Parliamentarians in the Federal Parliament,
as well as a number of their State counterparts.
One common refrain from Parliamentarians is a
sense of surprise at just how much of the lighting
industry’s value-add occurs within Australia. We
recognise that the lighting industry needs to do
more to promote awareness of the unequivocally
positive story about Australian firms in lighting:
our industry provides thousands of jobs in design
and manufacturing in Australia.
The Canberra Office of the organisation was
closed at the end of August. Australians hear much about our nation being
the ‘clever country’ and the need to compete
internationally in highly-skilled, technology-
related industries, but far fewer in the
community know that this is already happening
in the lighting industry.
Sadly, we have farewelled some staff as part of
that process but a number of highly qualified
recruits have joined the organisation to cover
technical issues, accounting and marketing. We will continue this work to ensure that relevant
political decision-makers are aware of our
organisation and the issues facing the industry.
A greater presence of lighting industry issues will
LCA now has a new headquarters in Melbourne
and a number of new staff have been recruited.
GOVLINK » ISSUE 2 2018