Page 97 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 8 February 2022
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it has been a tough period for businesses in a pandemic where things change and can be uncertain. We have been responding to different waves over two years, and this is a period that has felt particularly uncertain, and I think the survey and the responses to it reflect that. I will note that there are limitations to the survey and that there is not a breakdown of which types of businesses provided which responses, nor the geographic regions that were surveyed, and that 130 businesses out of 32,000 is a small sample size. If we borrow from how Ms Castley usually likes to describe participation, she would say that 99.6 per cent of businesses did not participate in the survey. However, I value hearing from the Business Chamber and their efforts in this space to capture some of the sentiment; and I appreciate all of those who took the time to fill in the survey and especially the qualitative feedback which, again, I note was varied.
It has been tough, and different industries have been affected in different ways. The consumer confidence will return because it is underpinned by the quality of our public health response. Our schools are back, and we are constantly reviewing our public health measures. We have been leveraging our own channels in the ACT government and partnering with a range of local media outlets to provide support for local small businesses. There are ways the community can support their favourite local small businesses in a way that suits them but still sees the businesses benefit from cash flow: budgeting an extra takeaway meal each week or each fortnight; buying a gift voucher on payday from a local business for use at a later date; or ordering a piece of art or merchandise from a local arts practitioner.
While the ACT government’s pandemic response remains our main priority, we will concurrently continue our work to make Canberra a great place to do business. We have a strong work program to support this, which the opposition should know, as it is no secret. Ms Castley has just claimed that she does not, and I am concerned to learn that, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt that she has only said this to suit the narrative.
The year 2022 will see the implementation of the automatic mutual recognition for a wide range of occupations. Having interstate licences automatically recognised will aid in the smooth movement of talent to Canberra’s businesses. Our workforce attraction grants are still open, designed to assist local businesses to join forces to deliver new projects and strategies to attract the workforce that they need to recover from the pandemic and grow. In the coming months the Better Regulation Taskforce will report to government on its findings from its extensive industry engagement and it will set forward the work program for legislative and regulatory reform. The task force has concluded some valuable early reform work, in collaboration with Procurement ACT, aimed at assisting businesses to understand ACT government procurement and how to go about bidding for these opportunities. I look forward to having more to say about that soon.
Earlier this morning the Chief Minister detailed the diverse economic platform we had created in this city prior to the pandemic, the resilience of the business community we have extensively supported over the past two years, and our focus on ensuring that we continue to grow this community. We have the right settings in place to ensure a strong economic recovery as we drive towards full employment. We will continue to
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