Page 3763 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 22 November 2006
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preface the answer by repeating comments made by the chief executive of the chamber, Mr Peters, in which he indicated that of the nine years in which he had been associated with quarterly expectation surveys of his members the one for the September quarter this year was easily and unequivocally the most positive report that had ever been achieved in relation to business outcomes and expectations in the Australian Capital Territory.
Mr Mulcahy: Have you written to John Howard to thank him?
MR STANHOPE: The one issue on which Mr Peters did not comment and on which I would perhaps have welcomed some commentary from Mr Peters goes to some of the interjections being made now; that is, on the four interest rate rises which the federal Liberal government promised in their last election campaign would not occur, a campaign joined most vigorously by a senator for the ACT, Senator Humphries.
An average ACT mortgage of about $300,000 will, over the life of the mortgage, cost Canberra families, on average, $74,000. That is a particular issue that I might address with Mr Peters when next we meet. The Liberal Party/Gary Humphries legacy or contribution to the economic wellbeing of individual families within the ACT has been a mortgage bill of an extra $74,000 over the term of their mortgage. That is just for an average mortgage—over $2,000 a year, over $100 a pay. That has been the Liberal Party’s contribution to the economic wellbeing of Canberrans.
It is pleasing for me to be able to report on the amazingly positive responses to the last chamber of commerce business expectation survey. The numbers are quite staggering. Sixty-four per cent of the businesses surveyed expected the ACT’s economic performance to continue at its current level or to be stronger in the next quarter. There were some absolutely staggering results from the survey.
Mr Mulcahy: You do it without a smile.
MR STANHOPE: You cannot walk away from these numbers. One hundred per cent of all businesses surveyed by the chamber of commerce experienced stable or improved business conditions in the September quarter. No business surveyed reported a downturn in business or business confidence.
Mrs Burke: You are taking all the credit.
MR STANHOPE: I am just reporting what businesses in Canberra are saying. I am simply reporting what people are saying; that is, that 100 per cent of the chamber of commerce businesses surveyed experienced stable or improved conditions and expect the same in the next quarter.
Turning to the next question, 100 per cent of the businesses are expecting stable or improved conditions for the December quarter. For the September quarter, 76 per cent of all businesses in the ACT reported an increase in profits: 76 per cent of all businesses surveyed by the chamber of commerce increased their profit in the September quarter and 83 per cent of all members of the chamber of commerce expect to increase their profits in the December quarter. Seventy-six per cent of all businesses increased their profit in the September quarter and 83 per cent of all
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