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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1276 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, it is, Mr Speaker. Let me say that I have no opinion about the federal government's advertising campaign, except to say that if members want information to be out there about how the new system is going to work, they have to expect that there will be some glossy advertising to go with it. I have not followed the details of what has been put out, but there was plenty of glossy advertising for initiatives of the former federal Labor government in all sorts of areas. In, I think, 1986 the federal government went on with a major advertising campaign about the number of jobs it had created since it came to office. I am not sure what public utility was being served by that campaign. At least the federal government's present campaign is designed to educate people about change, rather than just crowing about something that has already happened.

Mr Stanhope was asking about the reaction of small business to the GST and how it was going to impact on small businesses in the ACT. It is worth reflecting on what the chamber of commerce discovered in its March survey of business in the ACT. That survey found that 77.5 per cent of businesses believe that the ACT economy will perform as well or better over the next three months as against the last three months, compared with 75 per cent for the national economy. Obviously with that number of businesses feeling positive about the future, the GST is not necessarily the very large dark cloud that some people are making it out to be.

Eighty-eight per cent of businesses believe their general business conditions will remain positive, compared with 75 per cent in the last quarter, and 89 per cent believe their total sales revenue will remain positive, compared with 76 per cent for the previous quarter. One very interesting figure is that 57 per cent believe that their export sales will improve, 43 per cent that it will stay the same. No-one believes that it will decrease, which is very interesting. That shows that Canberra businesses are very much moving to sell their services and products outside the territory, outside the region, and are not relying on the federal and ACT governments as the sole or primary sources of business activity, as they have in the past. Businesses are also showing an increased confidence, with the number of firms expecting their profitability to improve over the next quarter, almost trebling the figures for the last quarter-from 5.5 per cent to 14.8 per cent.

Ms Carnell: So much for everyone being paranoid.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes. It does not sound to me like they are all clutching their heart and collapsing onto the carpet, Mr Speaker. It sounds like a business sector which is actually prepared to embrace the challenge of the future and is being quite positive about it. Employment levels continue to improve, according to the survey. Ninety-four per cent of the businesses in the ACT are expecting the same or higher employment levels in the next three months. That is a pretty impressive set of figures. It is a pretty impressive indication of the views of the business sector of the ACT about the future.

I do not think that there is any concern on the part of small business generically about the final effect of the GST. Obviously, they are concerned about implementation issues. It is a little like a business expanding, taking on a new area of activity and embracing a new aspect of an enterprise; it presents challenges. There are pitfalls and there are dangers, but you do not do it unless you believe that it is actually going to achieve something worthwhile. Clearly, businesses in the ACT believe that there are some positive signs on

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