Page 137 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 9 February 2022
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worked very closely in Tuggeranong recently regarding that as well. Ultimately, we want to support the safe delivery of as many events as possible.
We continue to deliver an annual program of events featuring major events that focus on attracting interstate tourism and its subsequent economic uplift, while community events are designed to bring Canberrans together in celebration. Community events delivered by the ACT throughout the summer have included a focus on providing increased economic opportunities for local businesses and for artists.
An expanded artistic program for New Year’s Eve provided jobs for 42 local artists, as well as opportunities for local hospitality businesses to leverage off the central fireworks displays. With support from the commonwealth economic stimulus funding, Australia Day in the Capital’s extended program included the engagement of a local event management company and a local marketing agency to support the delivery of the two-day event.
Planning for Canberra Day includes opportunities for our multicultural community groups impacted by the cancellation of the National Multicultural Festival. We have received, pleasingly, many applications from community vendors, community groups, multicultural businesses, diplomatic missions and, importantly, performer applications. All infrastructure and participation costs of the multicultural community have been waived for the event to ensure maximum revenue-generation opportunities for those communities. I hope to see all members of this place supporting our Canberra Day celebrations and, indeed, all community events this year.
Finally, I just want to quickly update the Assembly on some of the work being undertaken by the Better Regulation Taskforce. Last year it commenced its 2½-year program of work to understand how our regulatory landscape can be changed to make it easier to start, run and grow a business in the ACT. It was announced as part of our response to the pandemic, and its aim is to help drive Canberra’s recovery from COVID-19 and support long-term economic growth by putting in place best practice regulatory settings. It is an acknowledgement by this government that recovery is being led, and will continue to be led, by business and in partnership with us. An agenda to put in place better regulation is challenging but it is essential. The task force’s remit is not limited to exploring the regulatory instruments themselves but also many elements of the regulatory process, from administrative procedures to guidelines, website materials to regulator posture.
There has been plenty of consultation undertaken over the past year, and we are so pleased that businesses have embraced this process with us and been candid in their experiences so that we can improve it for everybody. We have commissioned a legislative review, and that is going to ensure that further in-depth work can be targeted to the priority areas.
We have also been working closely with the commonwealth government on a range of reforms under its deregulation agenda, including modernising business communications and overlapping regulation. Many of the themes are consistent with ours.
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