Page 1789 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
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I think there is plenty of room for government to simply make life easier for small businesses. Again, I am looking closely at some of the areas in my portfolios to see where we can make life simpler by government being less in the way, frankly. I see it in a number of places, whether it is communities organising events through to businesses trying to simply make things happen. There is no doubt that we can make improvements there. My door is always open to anybody who has got concrete suggestions. I am regularly out meeting with industry players trying to identify specific and concrete things government can do.
I think that facilitating the knowledge economy to grow is certainly a key area of potential in the ACT. That is not just the universities, although they have obviously been a very significant growth area in recent years, but also the research institutions, our national institutions and, of course, cultivating the Australia forum. I think that all of these things blend together to create a very powerful sector.
Members have probably heard me say in this place before that I really think the thinking Canberra model driven by the Canberra Convention Bureau is a great example of how to generate activity and momentum in this space. That program has pulled together the research and national institutions in the ACT to create a powerful model for bringing people to Canberra and creating a model where the ACT is a place of thinking, ideas and collaboration.
It has been a very powerful model and a very successful model. It is the sort of thing that we really should get behind. I am certainly pleased to see the money in this budget for the Australia forum to continue to move forward. I hope we can get to a place where we can collaborate with the federal government to make this a success. Putting all the politics of it aside, and whether the current federal government is really into Canberra or not, this is the sort of project that is not just a Canberra project; it is actually a national project. It is one that historically a federal government would have invested in in Canberra, recognising our unique and special role as the national capital.
I hope we can get to a place where we can sell the Australia forum on that basis to the federal government as a partnership, possibly a three-way partnership—the private sector, the federal government and the ACT government. But we need to get that project across the line. It is not going to be easy but I think we can do it, and I have confidence in it because of the significant energy that is being put into it by the business community in the ACT in partnership with the government.
I think enabling the creative and night-time economy to grow is another area of diversification. We have extremely high quality artists and art facilities in Canberra. Along with a strong live music centre and a range of community and artistic markets, we can ensure that Canberra is a place where people enjoy living and where there is, again, greater diversity.
I have commented to a few people recently that I have really noticed a big change in Canberra in the last five years—it feels like about five years to me—where a lot of that scene has really taken off. There are a lot more events around and there is a dynamic group of younger people really driving these kind of opportunities. Perhaps
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