Melbourne’s iconic MCG was alight on Saturday, 7th July as winners of the 2018 SPASA Awards of Excellence were announced.
With 448 industry stakeholders in attendance, the SPASA Awards Gala is the largest industry event of its kind in Australia and the most anticipated industry event on the Victorian calendar.
A total of 43 Awards of Excellence categories made up the SPASA Victoria Awards program, including major awards - Product of the Year and Remco Pool of the Year and a total of 70 Gold and Highly Commended awards were presented to well-deserving SPASA Victoria members.
The 2018 Remco Pool of the Year 2018 was awarded to Aloha Pools
The 2018 Product of the Year went to Supreme Heating for their Heatseeker DualSun Solar Electricity + Pool Heating System
Hosted by former Winter Olympic gold medallist Steven Bradbury, guests were treated to pure hilarity and genuine on-stage entertainment from the Olympic champion. Who could forget that lactic acid squatting competition?!
SPASA Victoria President Cliff Cooke congratulated all winners and said, "The quality of what our members produce just never ceases to amaze. They continue to explore ways to push the boundaries of possibility and another record event shows the passion our members have in the pursuit of excellence. Being early adopters of new technology, SPASA members sit on the cutting edge - and consumers are the ultimate winners."
SPASA Life Member and Past-President John D’Arcy also announced outgoing CEO Brendan Watkins as the inaugural 'SPASA Hall of Fame' inductee.
With sumptuous food prepared by renowned caterer Epicure, along with images of all award entries prominently displayed up in lights on the MCG scoreboards - as well as video footage on the 'Around-the-Ground' LED Ribbons - a fabulous night was enjoyed by all.
Many thanks to our sponsors and members for their invaluable involvement in our 2018 Awards of Excellence.
A full list of award winners is available HERE
Read the SPASA Awards Media Release HERE
View the 2018 MCG Awards Gala Photo Gallery HERE
The VBA published a revised Practice Note on 2 June to inform swimming pool building practitioners, designers, architects, swimming pool & spa installers and building surveyors about safety requirements during the construction of swimming pools & spas.
The Practice Note contains a number of amendments and it is recommended members read it as a matter of priority and confer with the relevant building surveyor on their construction.
Download a copy of the Amended Practice Note PN 05-2018 Swimming Pool & Spa Safety HERE
Members - particularly fibreglass builders and fencing contractors - are urged to contact Marita Callanan on 0419 588 085 with issues arising with Building Surveyors or Councils as a result of the new Practice Note.
The VBA introduced Company Registration on 1 July 2018.
If the VBA allocated your building company with a new Company Builder Registration number, you now need to use those details in SPASA contracts completed in your company name.
Any queries, please contact Marita on 0419 588 085 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Members should contact Jeremy Johnson, SPASA's specialist construction lawyer on 9938 1228 with any queries regarding SPASA contracts. It's a great opportunity to use your SPASA Member Benefit of one hour's free legal advice.
AB Phillips are our Platinum Partner and SPASA Victoria's preferred provider for Risk Management, Insurance and Financial Services. Contact Sarah Gardiner-Smith on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 1300 242 136 for more information on DBI for your building company.
New Legislation from 1 July 2018 Regarding Written Statements & Advertisements for Registered Builders
On 1 July new legislation was introduced which applies to registered builders when they advertise or promote their domestic building business (i.e. your website, quotation materials, social media sites, business cards, etc). As a result, the following applies to all domestic builders – regardless of whether they trade using a company or trade as a sole trader or partnership.
Effectively, the new legislation requires building practitioners who publish an advertisement, or provide a quote or written statement offering to carry out domestic building work, then that must include the name of the registered building practitioner and the registration number of the building practitioner. For example, a company called Bloggs Building Pty Ltd which trades as Billy Bloggs Builder would need to include the name and CDB-L of Bloggs Building Pty Ltd in advertising material, quotes etc for Billy Bloggs Builder. If Billy Bloggs Builder trades as a sole trader or partnership then he would need to include his own name and VBA registration number in those materials.
This is in addition to existing legislation which requires that ACN and ABN numbers are quoted in some documents.
Further advice will follow when released by Consumer Affairs Victoria.
The Winter Spa & Pool Show is on Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th August!
Come along to see what's on offer at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. Free seminars and great giveaways!
Any members wanting free tickets can contact Marita on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
You'll find us at the SPASA stand so come and say hello. We're looking forward to seeing all our members there!
Watch our TV commercial HERE
SPASA is pleased to announce our new expert HR services provider myhronline - for all your HR needs.
myhronline.com.au is your one-stop-shop for Human Resources advice and support. At the click of a button, you are provided with ready access to best practice Human Resources employment contracts, policies and advice – all compliant with the Fair Work Act and National Employment Standards. No subscription or lock in contracts. Simply download as you go!
You can read the myhronline information flyer HERE
For SPASA Victoria members only – myhronline offer 15% off Human Resources expert support as well as downloadable documents including employment contracts, policies, letters and templates. Contact Marita Callanan on marita@spasavic.com.au for the SPASA Member discount code.
We're also happy to advise you of our first FREE training session with myhronline on Tuesday 25th September 9am - 10.30am at the SPASA Office: 'Performance Management - Managing Termination, Redundancy and Unfair Dismissals’. Register HERE for this FREE HR Training session
Adam Clark from myhronline will be conducting this session and is keen to personally meet you all. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible! You can email Adam on aclark@myhronline.com.au, visit www.myhronline.com.au or call 1300 123 081.
For HR support without the hassle contact:
Adam Clark - Director
T: 1300 123 081 M: 0411 104 454 E: aclark@myhronline.com.au
A pool is the one thing every Aussie wants at their house, according to a study of the online search habits of property seekers.
Swimming pools have become the most prized feature for house hunters looking to dive into the real estate market.
Data provided exclusively to the Saturday Daily Telegraph showed ‘pool’ was the most searched for attribute nationally on realestate.com.au
The term was searched nearly 270,000 times over the past six months in NSW alone, five times more than the 52,000 searches of “waterfront” — the second most searched term.
Other popular search terms in NSW include granny flat, which came in third with 34,000 searches, garage with 29,000 searches, pets with 25,500 clicks and beach, which had 21,800 views.
In Victoria the second most searched for term was ‘garage’, with ‘courtyard’ coming in third. In Queensland buyers favoured the acronym ‘NRAS’, which stands for National Rental Affordability Scheme, as well as ‘pets’.
Read this article in full on News.com.au HERE
Following an ACCC investigation, the Federal Court has found that Domain Corp Pty Ltd and Domain Name Agency Pty Ltd (the Domain Companies) made false and misleading representations and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by sending out 300,000 unsolicited notices to businesses which looked like renewal invoices for existing domain names when this was not the case.
The ACCC instituted proceedings in August 2017, and the Federal Court has now ordered the Domain Companies to pay combined penalties of $1.95 million.
The Domain Companies misled Australian businesses and organisations, including small businesses, who paid around $2.3 million as a result of receiving these notices. They misled businesses into paying a renewal invoice for what looked like the business’s existing domain name, but was actually the registration of a new domain name.
The ACCC would like to remind small businesses to be particularly vigilant when paying invoices. If you receive a renewal notice for a ‘.com’ or '.net.au’ domain name, make sure you check that the notice is to renew your specific domain name and the business that is billing you is the one you normally deal with.
Read the ACCC Media Release HERE
If you have been scammed, we encourage you to report a scam to Scamwatch and find out where to get help. You can also subscribe to scam alert emails to receive updates on the latest scams.
From the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Small Business Team.
Safe Work Australia's National Guidance Material: Work-related psychological health and safety – A systematic approach to meeting your duties will help employers and workers understand and meet their duties concerning psychological health and safety in the workplace. Taking preventative action works.
Dr Peta Miller, Special Adviser for Safe Work Australia, said we know what causes psychological harm in the workplace and that taking preventative action works. “Our new national guidance material is essential reading for anyone who wants to build a healthy and safe workplace. It provides guidance on the causes of work-related psychological harm, advice on how to intervene early, and ideas and strategies for taking preventative action.”
Work-related psychological injury is expensive - it’s estimated that poor psychological health and safety costs Australian organisations $6 billion per annum in lost productivity. This guidance material provides a step-by-step process for managing psychological injury, intervening early and for taking preventative action to prevent your workers becoming ill or sustaining a psychological injury.
Contact your local WHS regulator for detailed information on how to use the guide in your workplace. Read the media release HERE Download the National Guide HERE
We also recommend that you watch Dr Peta Miller's presentation on the drivers of Safe Work Australia’s new authoritative guidance material for addressing psychological workplace health and safety.discusses the drivers of Safe Work Australia’s new authoritative guidance material for addressing psychological workplace health and safety.
This seminar is also available as a podcast.
Dotted all along the Sydney coastline, from Palm Beach in the north to Cronulla in the south, are about 35 ocean pools — but not a single one has been carved out since the 1960s.
Who built these pools shaped by the natural rockface of the city's beaches, and why aren't they still being built?
That's the question Curious Sydney has been asked to investigate by Krissy Varga, a swimming teacher and long-distance swimmer originally from Hungary.
"I started wondering — because I have been all around Australia as a tourist — why other cities haven't got this many ocean pools," she said.
Read this article in full HERE
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."One of the subbies fell in a pool shell a few weeks back and has been off work since. Will our WorkCover policy take care of his claim?"
Each time you hire a contractor, you need to determine if they're considered a 'worker' by WorkSafe – if so, you become their employer for WorkCover insurance purposes and will have liability for claim/return to work processes.
If the contractor is deemed to be a worker, the employer must also declare the payments made to the contractor in their rateable remuneration. If not deemed a ‘worker’ the contractor would need to be covered under their own policy.
We strongly suggest that whenever engaging subcontractors, you request a copy of their public liability and workers compensation/personal accident insurance.
AB Phillips offer a free review and analysis of your subcontractors insurance certificates, to ensure that they are correctly insured, which will mitigate the risk of subcontractor actions falling back on your business. We can consult either with yourself or directly with your subcontractor if we find any areas that require attention and also provide them with a comparison quote.
Call Sarah at AB Phillips today on 1300 242 136 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ever feel like you’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it? That you’re simply stretched too thin across all the tasks on your to-do list? Take a look at these tips to help you effectively hone your time management skills and increase your productivity.
Log your time If you’re wondering where the time goes, it’s a good idea to make a diary of how you spend your day, log all the activities you do, and detail how much time you spend doing each one. This will help you identify tasks you spend longer on than others. Look at those tasks and ask yourself how productive the time spent on them actually is. Are you spending too long on activities that don’t produce effective results?
Read this article in full HERE
Member Benefits - Available to all Members in 2018
- AB Phillips - SPASA’s Risk Management, Insurance & Financial Services Provider
- Jeremy Johnson & Associates - Free Expert Legal Advice
- Expert OHS Advice - Paul House, ISSC
- Career Dressing – Preferred Workwear & Corporate Clothing Supplier
- Online White Card Training with Aveling
- Houzz and SPASA – Free Profile-Building Website
- myhronline - HR Advice and resources, discounted for SPASA members
See the full details of your Member Benefits here