Pressure continues to mount on the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) concerning its relationship with jewellery industry suppliers and wholesalers.
Last month, Jeweller reported on the JAA’s failed attempt to establish a Supplier Sub Committee. The JAA announced the launch of the project in April 2025 and, in December, JAA president Joshua Sharp conceded that it had been abandoned without achieving any form of tangible objective or result.
Worse still, the project's mismanagement damaged relationships with event organisers and suppliers.
Following Jeweller’s report, which was published on 10 March, the JAA released a media statement titled ‘Clarification regarding JAA Suppliers Sub Committee’; however, and as has so often been the case for the association in recent years, the board merely fanned the flames rather than extinguishing the fire.
Not only does the JAA media statement rather blatantly misrepresent events, but it also includes demonstrably false claims about the association’s financial affairs. Before detailing these misrepresentations, it’s important to understand how this came about.
The JAA Supplier Sub Committee was supposedly intended to address a range of issues facing the industry, including a focus on the so-called ‘duplication’ of trade shows; namely, the International Jewellery Fair (Expertise Events) and the Jewellery Industry Fair (Jewellery Industry Network), both hosted in Sydney.
The JAA was concerned about the industry...
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