Page 1877 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 June 2021
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MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra—Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Business and Better Regulation, Minister for Human Rights and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (3.36): I do not intend to speak for long on this motion, given my ministerial statement this morning, but I will respond to some of Ms Castley’s claims.
In my statement this morning, I answered as many of the questions as I could, including many of Ms Castley’s accusations. I often comment in this place that the opposition is internally incoherent. Whether it is Mrs Kikkert tabling a petition demanding that the government expand Kippax immediately, while you, Mr Assistant Speaker Cain, are at the same time promoting a survey that suggests that the government should go back to the drawing board on Kippax, or the contradictory comments that just one shadow minister makes; the lack of internal coherence can sometimes be breathtaking. That has been common today.
Ms Castley is criticising that at least 797 businesses participated in the scheme. In the same breath she criticises how quickly the $2 million was spent. Given the speed of the take-up of the vouchers, 800 businesses gaining something from the scheme in that amount of time suggests that these were good figures. That Ms Castley is hell-bent on casting doubt on small businesses and people spending locally is, frankly, beyond the pale for a shadow business minister. Without specific allegations, her claims are, at best, spurious; at worst, they undermine the reputations of our hardworking small business community.
I welcome Ms Castley’s and the community’s broad interest in the scheme, and the scrutiny that should be applied to it and will be applied to it. But without specific allegations, with just broad statements, business community reputations are being besmirched. I implore each member of this place, and the broader community: if you actually have specific allegations, share them; but if you do not, perhaps reconsider the rhetoric.
This was a bold, new initiative for the ACT. We had never done anything quite like this before. It was wholeheartedly embraced by Canberrans and businesses. The demand begets the demand in a compounding way. But it was intended to be a one-off, and that reflected some of our decisions. We learned a lot from this, and we still have a lot to learn.
As I noted, there are questions out there from the community about the scheme, including its design and implementation, noting the technical issues; the distribution of spending; the stimulus impact; and whether it would be appropriate to run it again, or something like it, if another economic downturn were to occur. And there are other matters that should be considered, too.
I welcome independent and comprehensive scrutiny, and that the findings be made public. It is for this reason that the ACT government will procure a review of this nature and, as detailed in the amendment to the motion, this will begin soon. The intention, as flagged, is that it will be completed by the last sitting day. It will include all of what Ms Castley called for in her original motion and more.
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