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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2897 ..

MRS CARNELL: I move:

Omit "since 1 March 1995,", substitute "since their inception".

Add "The inquiry will have particular reference to:

(a) the economic and employment benefits for the ACT that have been generated by the IAP and BIS;

(b) possible measures to improve the operation and scope of the BIS to promote greater economic and employment growth in the ACT.".

I suggested that all those opposite needed to do was ask for a briefing. I think it is very important to understand that a lot of the information that this committee may ask for is confidential not just to ACTBIS but also to the companies involved, and we would need to respect the confidentiality that companies may require. I can understand that companies that want to deal with the ACT Government will not want information personal to them or confidential information splashed all over committee reports or pages of newspapers. That would be the quickest way to ensure that we never got another ACTBIS proposal up in the ACT. Companies would not want to deal with us. I am confident that nobody in this place would want that to happen. Mr Whitecross has indicated that he supports business incentive approaches.

A large amount of our success in the business incentive area stems from efforts to ensure that companies, not just in the ACT but around Australia and the region, believe and know that Canberra is a good place to do business, a place where you can deal with not just the Government but also the Assembly and our whole process without fear of having confidential information made public. It is also important that we ensure that our processes within ACTBIS and other parts of government are as streamlined as possible. We have many processes in place, which of course we will be very pleased to share with the committee, to achieve that sort of streamlining.

One of the important parts of this inquiry, as set out in paragraph (b) of my second amendment, will be to look at "possible measures to improve the operation and scope of the business incentive scheme to promote greater economic and employment growth in the ACT". Too often, committees can look only at the negatives rather than the ways in which they can actually improve how things work. I will be very pleased to see the committee's recommendations on how we can improve job creation and economic growth in the ACT.

MR MOORE (11.50): In rising to support the motion and the amendments, I must say that I think this will be an excellent inquiry. I have spoken to Mr Whitecross about it this morning, and I know that it was always his intention to look at the sorts of things in the amendments. I am sure it would have been the same with Mrs Littlewood and Ms Horodny. The doubts I have in my mind about the way business incentive schemes work and, more importantly, concerns about how they can be focused to very specific parts of the community and therefore lead to unfair competition and undermine other businesses are the sorts of issues that we really need to look at.

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