Wagga’s small businesses have reported experiencing more financial pressures from the effects of the region’s prolonged heat waves in the past two months.
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Issues included increased energy use and impact on human resources.
Andrew Lloyd, owner of North Wagga Mechanical, said that the heat made vehicles hotter, slowing down the efficiency of services.
“I don’t put in as many bookings because I don’t want to put the boys under pressure, which does affect business and profit,” Mr Lloyd said.
“But it would cost more if something goes wrong.
“The health and safety of employees and customers are first priority.”
Mr Lloyd said that to create understanding with customers and to counteract financial losses, he advised them that services took longer due to the weather.
“I’m lucky I got a good customer base, so they do understand,” he said.
“But sometimes we do have to work in direct sunlight, for example in attending breakdowns, so they’re more difficult.
“We take extra precautions, including keeping up fluids and stocking up the fridge with water.”
Similarly, Jardine’s Cafe owner Matt Cunneen said the store put in measurements to address the extreme heat.
“We’ve gone from having the air con on from a low setting to flat out,” Mr Cunneen said.
“If you can offer a good work environment in that respect, I don’t think it would really affect you because we were pretty much full every day.
“I know some businesses have had to hire extra air conditioning, which is great on their behalf.
“Everyone cares about their staff – we’ve installed air-conditioning in the kitchen and are looking at upgrading that to a different degree as well.”
Everyone cares about their staff – we’ve installed air-conditioning in the kitchen and are looking at upgrading that to a different degree as well.
- Matt Cunneen, owner of Jardine's Cafe
Mr Cunneen said business performance remained stable during the prolonged extreme heat.
“We found it okay – the customers were ordering more cold drinks to counteract the weather,” he said.
Asked about what government support he would like to see during extreme weather, Mr Cunneen said reducing energy costs “would be phenomenal”.
”Considering we’re in Australia and we produce the power here, why are we paying so much?” he said.
“Go over to Saudi Arabia where they produce their oil and they pay bugger all for their oil – can you imagine them paying $1.50 [per litre] over there?
“They’d just be up in arms.”
Following the extreme heat, the Council of Small Business of Australia is seeking a round table discussion with political leaders about business planning and power security during adverse weather.
Peter Strong, CEO of COSBOA, said that the reason for a discussion was the increasing prices of energy.
“Some are paying more than 120 per cent compared with a few years ago and we need to confront that,” Mr Strong said.
“We need to look at what support there is.
“As there is an election is coming up soon, we’d like to get all parties telling us their plans about energy access and support.”
Extreme heat across the nation’s southern states also resulted in power outages last week.
While Wagga did not experience that, Mr Strong said the region needed risk management for such a scenario.
“In Wagga, it’s not uncommon to see degrees of 40 or more, but it’s the prolonged period we’re now seeing,” he said.
“The region is obliged to develop risk management should extreme heat cause power outages.
“The other aspect is OHS issues across various sectors and their effects on financial returns.”
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