The inaugural Bonner Seniors’ Expo hosted yesterday by Federal Member Ross Vasta MP was a huge success, with over 300 locals from across the electorate attending and 55 stallholders participating on the day.

“I’m proud to support our valuable local seniors and help them find out what services they can access in the community and how,” Mr Vasta said.

“So many people have told me how much they’re enjoying the Expo and how much useful information they’re getting out of it. They’ve told me they’re hoping it becomes a regular event and I’m definitely looking at bringing it back even bigger and better next year!”

Lota residents Sydney and Carol Lawrence thanked Mr Vasta for holding the Expo and said the local area needed an event like it.

“It’s drawn some great crowds and hopefully it can become a feature event for the community,” Mr Lawrence said.

“We’ve discovered a lot of new things today that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”

Barry Tewes from Upper Mt Gravatt said he’d recently gotten on the pension, and had come along to the Expo to find out what was out there for him.

“I’ve discovered lots of things I didn’t know about and found out about some good activities. This is a great event that deserves to grow bigger next year. I hope it does,” Mr Tewes said.

There were several informative talks held throughout the day and information stalls run by local activity groups.

“It’s great to have all these different groups and organisations under the one roof for people to discover,” Mt Gravatt Men’s Shed committee member Bart McKnight said.

“This event will really benefit the people coming along today.”

Past President of the Lions Club of Brisbane MacGregor Kathy McCarthy said it was an excellent event with a great turnout.

“It was so good of Ross to organise it. There are so many stallholders here, and there’s such a good variety of stallholders too,” Mrs McCarthy said.

She encouraged seniors to attend their MacGregor Lions Health and Wellbeing Expo to be held in Mt Gravatt next March.

CEO of Tyack Health, Joel Tyack, spoke on how people can stay healthy and active in their older years.

“I think the Expo is a fantastic initiative. I can tell from people’s enthusiasm that they’re really enjoying it,” Mr Tyack said. 

“It’s a great way for people to get out and about and enjoy themselves.”

Sailability Bayside volunteer Geoff Grace said the Expo would help people know what was available in their local area.

“It was great of Ross to set this up and bring so many local organisations and businesses together at one event for people to find,” Mr Grace said.

Mr Vasta said he hoped the Expo had helped and entertained everyone who attended, and encouraged attendees to contact his office to share their feedback with him.

The Turnbull Government will accept the recommendation of the Energy Security Board (ESB) for a new National Energy Guarantee to deliver more affordable and reliable electricity while meeting our international commitments.

Federal Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta said under The Guarantee households and businesses across Bonner would have access to affordable and reliable power.

“The National Energy Guarantee will give certainty to investors and encourage investment in all forms of power,” Mr Vasta said.

“This means electricity bills will be lower than currently forecast and lower than they would have been under a Clean Energy Target.

“We understand that families and businesses are doing it tough and this Guarantee will provide cost-of-living relief.

“The National Energy Guarantee will lower electricity prices, make the system more reliable, encourage the right investment and reduce emissions without subsidies, taxes or trading schemes.”

The Guarantee is made up of two parts that will require energy retailers across the National Electricity Market to deliver reliable and lower emissions generation each year.

Coal, gas, hydro and biomass will be rewarded for their dispatchability, while wind, solar and hydro will be recognised as lower emissions technologies but will no longer be subsidised.

“Unlike previous approaches, we are not picking winners, we are levelling the playing field,” Mr Vasta said.

“The National Energy Guarantee builds on the short and medium term plans already in place.

“The Guarantee builds on our existing energy policy which involves the retailers offering consumers a better deal, stopping the networks gaming the system, delivering more gas for Australians before it’s shipped offshore and the commencement of Snowy Hydro 2.0 to stabilise the system.”

Local small business owners learned how they can win a contract as part of the Federal Government’s $200 billion Integrated Investment Program, during a Defence Industry Forum hosted yesterday by Federal Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta MP.

“The Government has allocated $200 billion over the next 10 years to build up our Defence Force capability and grow our local defence industry,” Mr Vasta said.

“This is a great opportunity for small and medium businesses to enter the defence market and help create more jobs and grow our local economy.”

Mr Rodney Love, business adviser from the Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC), shared advice for business owners looking to start out in defence, and the services available to help them in the process.

“You need to be able to provide a service or product that can meet the Defence Department’s current or future needs. You must also make sure your company fully complies with the Department’s standards and tender process,” Mr Love said.

Mr Love encouraged interested business owners to contact the CDIC for further information. 

“The CDIC provides frank and fearless advice about whether expanding into defence would be appropriate for you, and the best defence opportunities available to you,” Mr Love said.

Mr David Briggs, Chief Risk Officer from NIOA, and Mr Terry Waterson, Operations Manager from BMD Constructions, shared their advice on winning a contract with Defence.

“You have to offer the best product for the best value. Most importantly, you have to be prepared to lose a tender,” Mr Briggs said.

“The CDIC will let you know straight up if your product is suitable for Defence, or how you can alter it to suit Defence’s needs.”

Mr Waterson said businesses should do their research on what work Defence is doing or has coming up.

“Find out about opportunities early on and pre-prepare. Don’t start the application process when a tender opens—know about the tender beforehand so you have more time to put forward the best application possible,” Mr Waterson said.

For more information on working with Defence and current opportunities available, visit the CDIC website.

Federal Minister for Communications, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, today provided locals from Mount Gravatt, Carindale, Wynnum and surrounding areas with an update on the NBN rollout across Australia.

Residents had the opportunity to ask nbn-related questions to the Minister, as well as representatives from nbn co and Telstra, at a community information session hosted by Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta.

“The nbn rollout is now one-third complete in Bonner, and I’m pleased to say a third of premises with access have taken up an nbn service,” Mr Vasta said.

Minister Fifield said the nbn was now available to over half of all Australian premises, with 75 per cent expected to have access by June 2018 and all premises to have access by mid-2020.

“The nbn is one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever carried out in Australia. With such a massive undertaking there’ll inevitably be a small percentage of people with issues. This is not to diminish their experiences and nbn co is working hard to improve the consumer experience as the rollout is completed,” Minister Fifield said.

“When the nbn falls short of people’s expectations, often it’s an issue of retailers not purchasing enough capacity to service their customers. The Government is ensuring accountability and has funded the ACCC’s Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting program.”

“Under this program, the ACCC is implementing real-time speed testing at 4000 volunteer sites across the country. This will provide invaluable information on broadband speeds to consumers and motivate retailers to provide the best speeds possible.”

Minister Fifield said the ACCC had published guidelines for retailers on how they should advertise their NBN service speeds. The guidelines advise retailers to clearly advertise the minimum speeds consumers can expect to achieve during peak evening periods, rather than the maximum speeds that may be delivered during off-peak periods.

“The ACCC has made it clear that if retailers fail to meet these guidelines, more formal action will be taken,” Minister Fifield said.

Mr Vasta encouraged people to sign up for broadband performance consumer updates on the ACCC website. 

He asked those with further issues or questions on the NBN rollout to contact his office or visit the nbn co website.