john and jamie murdoch - cameleons?

Fremantle Special Council Meeting Tuesday 31st March 2008

The Stallholders Association thanks the Council for calling this Special Meeting and those councilors who have seen fit to listen to the stallholders and to recognize the markets future is at a crossroads.

As the Secretary of the Stallholders Association, I speak with a lot of stallholder’s and I can tell you tonight that the questions they want answers to are:
“Why is this happening”
“Will my business be viable”.
“What about the future?”

Fremantle Markets is an unquestionable success. It is an elusive mix and as stallholders we are proud of the markets and the community that has grown around it. Its vibrant, unique and irreplaceable.
That’s why we are here tonight and why we are willing to keep coming back…we are determined not to lose what we have helped create.

We are in touch with our customers, hear their comments and intimately know the market environment. The markets are not just “a thing”.. it has a life and that life is the stallholders …..without us it’s an empty building.

We are bewildered by the current mess we find ourselves in.

One question the Council has to ask itself is how has it been allowed to degenerate into this when the Working Group was established to prevent it?

The agenda items are just some of the issues, but, more importantly for the City and councilors to consider are the reasons behind the downward spiral in confidence and morale at the Markets.

At the centre of this are unsustainable rent increases but equally important is the dictatorial style of management. These boys are chameleons, what the council sees is not what we see.

In last years Council survey, 58% of stallholders were happy to enter into a 5 year agreement with management. That’s not overwhelming support within itself but if you conducted that survey today the results would be dramatically lower.

Jamie claims publicly that, “over half have happily accepted these increases”.
But what he doesn’t say is …this group is predominantly casual stalls….who have to be happy!

The rent increases need to be fair and equitable for everyone.
How can it be when you assessed market rent at $550,000, that’s an annual increase of $400 a stall ….. then permanent stalls are slugged an extra $4000,…….. a 1000% hike….. And I’m being very conservative!

That makes our rents right up at the top of the highest market rents in the country. These are rents comparable to major shopping centres. …….THIS IS A MARKET, NOT THE GALLERIA.


As retailers we understand markup and if in the long term, it’s excessive, your customers will desert you because they know, they have been ripped off.
And that’s how the stallholders feel… “RIPPED OFF”.

The Murdoch’s claim that rents have been too cheap… it’s not justification, it’s an excuse as are the wild claims in their marketing plan that stallholders turnover on average half a million dollars a year. Who dreams up these figures?

We are already seeing more empty casual stalls, and permanents, who have been hit with their increases, are starting to feel the reality of falling returns.
Trying to lift your prices to cover these rent hikes is simply not on with the current economic woes,

Two stallholders have just walked away; others sold out of long term businesses for little money. It’s scant return for years of dedication.

Stallholders don’t want to leave… they love the markets but now find themselves re-assessing their future and looking elsewhere for alternative premises. These have been sound successful enterprises just unable or unwilling to pay crippling rents. We can’t afford to lose good people.

For FMPL it’s not just about replacing good long term operators, but keeping them. These people are not just entries in an accounting ledger.

We acknowledge we have to move forward with the times, and new initiatives need to be undertaken, however we do not want Fremantle Markets, a premier market in Australia to fall into the trap of so many others that end up homogonous and boring because interesting and innovative operators are driven out through high rents…..

The Stallholder’s Association recommendation to rectify this is to reintroduce stallholder rents indexed to Council increases. The historic evidence is, this system works successfully. I know management are publicly critical of subsidized rents, however, the Murdoch family have been happy to re-enter a number of long term leases as beneficiaries of it over the past 30 years.

The Council, local businesses and broader community have also profited from the success it brings.

Unfortunately the other issue I raised in relation to the dictatorial management style will not be that easily addressed.

The Stallholders Association, who represent the majority of stallholder’s, urge councilors to vote in favour of the agenda items.


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