Page 3999 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 25 November 2014
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government starts spending again. We can carve our own way. We can address many of the problems that this government faces by addressing that imbalance between 1.2 per cent of businesses where we have 1.6 per cent of population. We can move forward working on our greatest potential, our greatest asset, which is the people of the ACT—well-educated, well-motivated, smart people who have a world view in many cases and who have excellent products or services but need some assistance to get them to market.
The number is 24,377; congratulations to those who have taken the plunge. The challenge for the government is to ensure that there is more and that we address the imbalance between total number of businesses and population. To those aspirations of the early days of the capital when the founding fathers wanted to see us as a city of governance, education and the arts, let us add “business” or “commerce” to that so that we can steer our own way and improve the wellbeing of the environment and all of the people in the ACT. (Time expired.)
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Housing and Minister for Tourism and Events) (4.15): I thank Mr Smyth for bringing this important matter to the Assembly this afternoon. For a short time there I thought we were going to get a 100 per cent positive speech from the shadow treasurer. But it was probably too difficult to sustain 15 minutes of positivity about small business and the ACT economy. We get the same old hoary chestnuts. Apparently, Labor is bad for small business. This simply reflects the fact that Mr Smyth has not generated a new idea in this policy area and in this debate in the eight years I have been in this place, and we can then go back over the 15 years or more now that he has been a member. But there we go.
Let me go to the positive, though, Madam Assistant Speaker. The government understand small business. We understand that it is small business that makes our economy tick and that it is small businesspeople who take the risks. We understand that it is the government’s job to help make the business environment as encouraging as possible. We are doing our part, and there is no doubt that small business is doing its part.
The key driver of opportunity for small business in the territory economy is the overall level of economic growth. This government has overseen an economy which has grown by almost $1 billion a year every year for 12 years. Where our economy has grown over that period, so too has the small business sector. For the benefit of the shadow treasurer, the small business sector in the territory has grown by almost four per cent in the past four years. This is double the national average. On average, 10 small businesses have been established in Canberra every month for the last 10 years. I repeat that: 10 new small businesses established in Canberra every month for the last 10 years. The small business sector now makes up over 95 per cent of Canberra businesses. The ACT has the most small business friendly payroll tax system in Australia. With a $1.85 million payroll tax threshold, this is by far the most generous threshold and the most supportive of small business anywhere in Australia, and we are committed to moving this threshold higher in the future.
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