​The Great Places to Work® Institute has released the 2018 list of the best places to work. Hilton has been recognised as the fourth best place to work for amongst companies with over 1,000 employees in Australia. Staff development practices include Thrive@Hilton, the Hilton Team Member value proposition aimed at supporting and rewarding Team Members; the partnership with Smith Family Foundation equipping disadvantaged school students to make informed decisions about their future careers; and a focus on promoting or transferring Team Members across the 12 hotels in Australia.

Nominations are open for Fitness Australia’s Australian Fitness Awards 2019. The newly formed awards are open to everyone in the industry and seek to recognise and celebrate outstanding businesses and professionals. The awards include seven business categories, three categories for individuals and one community award. Read more.

​Iain McDougall is the Nominated Member for Western Australia to the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC). The AISC, established to give industry a formal role in approving vocational education and training (VET) training packages for implementation, is composed of industry leaders nominated by Commonwealth and state and territory ministers responsible for skills and training.
Iain is the General Manager of Hospitality Group Training (HGT). Prior to joining HGT in 1995, Iain gained twenty years of senior management experience with the Federal Government mainly in training policy. Iain is a FutureNow Board member and the Board and staff congratulate Iain on this appointment.

Visitors to Ningaloo Marine Park can swim with majestic humpback whales for a third year running, with a new trial season commencing off the Coral Coast. This is the only location in Australia where visitors can swim with migrating humpback whales. The trial is managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions under strict licence conditions, supported by a research and monitoring program. The Government is working with tour operators and key stakeholders with a view to transitioning the trial to a licensed industry over the next two years. Read more.

The State Government has signed a three-year deal to fund one of the biggest mountain bike events in the Asia-Pacific region, the Cape to Cape MTB. Held in the State's South-West, the four-day event attracts more than 1,200 intrastate, interstate and international competitors. The 220km course takes in extraordinary sights such as stunning beaches, tall-timber forests and world-class vineyards. The State Government supports the Cape to Cape MTB through Tourism WA's Regional Events Program. Read more.

Rebecca Brown has been appointed as CEO of Tourism WA and Director General of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation. Rebecca will play a key role in helping to increase the contribution of tourism to WA’s economy, attracting investment to the State and overseeing the Government’s jobs agenda for Western Australia. Acting Premier Roger Cook’s media statement can be read here. 

The first draft of the updated Outdoor Recreation Training Package products - qualifications, skills sets, units of competency and assessment requirements - is now open for public consultation until 17 September 2018. Industry stakeholders in Western Australia are encouraged to review the materials relevant to them and to provide feedback to FutureNow so that a consolidated State view can be presented. The revised and new qualifications, skill sets and units, along with a consultation guide summarising the proposed changes, can be found here.

New liquor laws come into effect over the August 18-19 weekend, aiming to reduce regulatory burden on licensees, encourage more tourism-friendly hospitality culture and grow jobs through increased activity in the State’s hospitality industry. Changes include restaurants with 120 people or less capacity no longer needing a separate licence to serve liquor without a meal, and Clubs being allowed to accept genuine tourists or visitors. The Premier and Tourism Minister's media statement can be viewed here. 

A partnership between Sydney Airport and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is raising the profile of Australian artists through a major installation of Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore’s United Neytions in the airport’s T1 International Marketplace area. The artwork comprises 28 flags suspended from the ceiling. Moore has said the artwork “celebrates issues of place and identity [on] a scale and status that official international flags have; drawing attention to the histories, voices and presence of local Indigenous people on which land the airport – an international zone/’no man’s land’ – lies, but also the passages of cultures, pasts, territories, ages and cultural knowledges that airports foster”.  View the Arts Hub story here.

To attract more international students to Western Australia, the McGowan Government has announced it will be introducing a Graduate Skilled Migration List. It will give high achieving international students graduating from Western Australian universities a pathway to skilled migration under the State Nominated Migration Program. The changes are expected to help grow the number of international students to WA, improving our international education market share. To view the media statement, please click here.