2014 Annual Luncheon of the Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce

Harry Triguboff: “State Government will change everything”

The Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce held its 2014 Annual Luncheon at Dolton House in Sydney, in the presence of Milad Raad, the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of Lebanon, George Ghanem, the Consul General of Lebanon, Barnaby Joyce MP, Deputy Leader of the Nationals, Minister for Agriculture, Member for New England, Li Huaxin, Ambassador of the Republic of China, Joseph Rizk, CEO of the Arab Bank Australia, John Simon, Luisa Pastrello, General Manager of Etihad Airways Australia & New Zealand, Margie Abbott, wife of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Kerryn Baird, wife of Premier Mike Baird, politicians, mayors, councilors, business, community figures. Mr Harry Triguboff AO, the founder and managing director of Meriton, Australia’s largest apartment developer, was the guest speaker, while Ross Greenwood, of the Nine Network was the MC.

The luncheon was supported by Arab Bank Australia, Etihad Airways and other sponsors.

Excerpt from ALCC president Joe Khattar’s speech: “We are honored to have as our guests from Lebanon the Dekwaneh Municipality delegation, headed by Mayor Antoine Chakhtoura, Deputy Mayor George Sader, Municipality Engineer Joseph Chakhtoura and Municipality Consultant Elie Serghani …

The chamber recently attended a major conference in Beirut organised by Lebanon’s Foreign Affairs. Our Head of Trade Relations, Michael Rizk, delivered a presentation on trade and services and took on the subject of exporting fresh perishable Lebanese produce to Australia.

The Australian Institute of Training was also set-up in Beirut.

Excerpts from Mr Triguboff’s interview: “What’s happening now is that we’re going to grow. You must borrow. And this is my word to you: don’t be scared. I don’t think that the interest rates will go up much, they won’t go down much. They’ll stay about where they are. So it’s a good time to grow.

“For me to grow, for any of you to grow, the city has to grow. This is what happened. If you look at our immigration figures you will see that we have always increased all the time.

“The reason my business has grown so much is because the apartment sector has grown so much and it will grow a lot more. The reason is very simple. A lot of people today rent. So I think I’m a great believer in apartments.

“In the end the high rise will win. There’s many reasons you say about government selling land but they’re also selling land for apartments. The new thing will be that we will make our buildings higher. Everything will change; it has to change.

“The politicians felt that they had to apologise that people would live in apartments and not in houses. So now what happens is offices with views can no longer compete with the same areas that could be used for apartments. So we are changing them. You will soon see that offices with views will become apartments so that’s a tremendous amount we don’t have to find new lands for. The buildings are there, you know; all you have to do is change the tenants.

“I had the best time of my life when the state government was fighting council. How could both be correct when they were fighting each other? They have tremendous power but that power is used wrongly. First of all they waste a lot of time. Everybody has to tick off on the development. It’s not only council people but also the railways and the water board, electricity, sewer, everybody.

“State Government wants to do everything properly. They work for two or three years trying to change everything. They come to the Parliament and can’t get anything through. Now we’ve got a new State Government and they’re telling me they’ll change everything.

“Everybody’s scared to talk. Now because of all the big changes that have to be done in the Department of Planning it is imperative that they speak so we can get it right. You have to work with us because you’re the only people we can work with if you want development. We must trust each other and everything will be a lot easier.