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ACAPMA PETROLEUM INDUSTRY REPORT INDUSTRY BODIES STEP UP DURING CRISIS The coronavirus emergency has reinforced the power of industry cooperation. By ACAPMA CEO Mark McKenzie. A mong the lessons from the COVID-19 crisis (and the recent bushfire emergency) are that if businesses want an association that has the power and influence to represent them, then they must actively engage with their relevant association. Industry associations’ most valuable asset is influence, which comes only if these bodies have a membership that is both sizeable and representative of the industry they purport to represent. Just like the unions that represent employees, industry associations represent employers. Both are governed by the same national law, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act. Like unions, associations are set up to represent members in a particular industry. They’re run ‘by members for members’ and have rules that require them to act in the best interest of their members. A core function of industry associations is to interact between industry and government on relevant policy and legislative matters, but the effectiveness of this action is rightly dependent on having an engaged, motivated and open membership base. An association that claims to represent an industry but doesn’t have high levels of membership in all of the industry segments will receive no traction when pressing for change or acknowledgement with governments. Similarly, an association whose members are not willing to engage in consultative activities or contribute to vital industry policy and regulatory discussions is likely to be ineffective in its advocacy. But industry associations can’t simply be a vehicle for business complaint. They must be so much more. Outrage has its place, but it must be tempered with informed and representative comment that seeks to build solutions to identified problems, as opposed to simply whingeing about them publicly. If not, then even justified outrage of an association will be treated as whingeing and ignored as promptly. This may seem a strange string of 60 CONVENIENCE WORLD MAY/JUN, 2020 thoughts, at a time when all anyone is talking about is COVID-19. But having spent the past four months engaged in almost constant teleconferences with regulators and government committees for various emergencies (and some significant day-to-day items, too) I have reflected on how associations might get better at the ‘associating’ part, and thereby gain better results in their advocacy beyond the current exceptional circumstances. In my capacity as both CEO of ACAPMA and Chair of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, I’ve been involved in the COVID-19 response for some time. I’ve been amazed by the level of cooperation between traditional adversaries in the political arena. When it comes to defeating this virus and weathering the significant economic impact on the country, associations and unions are working with all three levels of Australian governments (and their political oppositions) in a way that should make every Australian proud. During the bushfire emergency earlier this year, ACAPMA participated on one of the national disaster coordination committees. During one meeting, an operational question came up from the firefighters about which service station sites had a generator or were configured to use a generator. The assumption was that, as the national association representing servos, ACAPMA would have this information readily at hand. We didn’t. Like most associations, the past response to member equipment surveys was relatively limited, so ACAPMA had ‘patchy’ information in this area at best. Thankfully, the high level of active member engagement with ACAPMA meant that we received rapid responses to our request for information when the call went out during January. We experienced a similar situation regarding truck stop facilities during COVID-19. The information on hand from previous surveys was patchy, but thanks to great engagement, when the call went out during another emergency situation, the membership was swift to respond with the necessary information. "Join up, become a member, then engage in those programs and information gathering exercises that will provide your association with the backing it needs to argue on your behalf."