Page 3135 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 September 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It is very hard not to break into hysterical laughter; but, Madam Speaker, let us look at the current environment for Canberra business. I think this is a good opportunity to talk about some specific examples. A specific example, just to start with, is a computer business that was moving down from Sydney not too many months ago to set up in the ACT. They required a partition to be built in their new premises for the cost of $3,000.
Mr De Domenico: How long did it take?
MRS CARNELL: Before we talk about time, they had to pay $100 to the leasing section, a $240 building application fee, an application fee of $200 for a building permit, plus 25 per cent of the permit fee to the Fire Brigade. This was just the financial side of putting up this one partition that this firm wanted to put up so that they could move from Sydney to set up business here. Apart from the cost, it took nearly three weeks to get the approval to put up one partition. If the same firm wished to move a sink, a plumber would charge approximately $70 for the service and that would take about an hour. However, in the ACT, he has to draw up a plan, have the plan approved and pay a fee, get an inspection done, and pay a fee for the plumbing permit. The end result is that moving a sink costs from $700 to $800 instead of, say, $100. Of course, one would have to ask: If the plumber is licensed to do a job, is all the rest of this carry-on really necessary? Those are the questions that business is asking.
Many of us, on this side of the house anyway, get questions about the leasehold system. In quite a number of circumstances in the ACT the present leasehold system is also a disincentive to buying commercial property in the ACT. I think it is important, when talking about business development, to have a look at what is really happening out there in business; not the rhetoric, but what is really happening. As we have seen in newspaper articles recently and have heard about in the media, and as, I am sure, all of us have seen in our local shopping centres, small Canberra businesses in the retail sector are being forced out of business. They are being forced out of business because the large chain-stores have taken full advantage of extended trading hours. We totally support extended trading hours. The problem for small Canberra based businesses is that they do not have the capacity to enter into enterprise based agreements as do the major large chain-stores.
Penalty rates are still a huge disincentive to small business. It is impossible for small business to compete unless the labour market is deregulated, or, at the very least, small employers are placed in a position of being able to enter into workplace based agreements with their predominantly non-unionised employees. In the current situation that is not possible, so they are going broke. They are going to the wall and are closing their doors. This problem was noted in the first EPACT report and it seems that the Government has taken absolutely no notice of it. In fact, it was suggested that this problem was one of the reasons we had youth unemployment in Canberra. Canberra, in some areas, has one of the highest levels of workers compensation in Australia. All of these extra costs on business make it harder to employ, harder to set up, and they will stop business growing in Canberra.
When talking about costs for ACT business, it is hard not to talk about occupational health and safety, with Mr Berry's wonderful piece of legislation requiring all businesses with more than 10 employees to set up designated work groups. That is a dramatic impost on business. I am finding it quite interesting
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .