Page 4005 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 25 November 2014
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Recently I met with the Australian Hotels Association, as I regularly do. They raised concerns about the newly minted minister for industrial relations looking to again further legislate public holidays in the territory. If the minister goes through with this proposal that he has been discussing with the industry, the ACT will have potentially up to 17 public holidays in a year. Whilst we all think a public holiday is a great day to spend at home with family or to catch up with friends, the flipside is that it has a negative impact on businesses. When businesses in the hotels sector, as we are talking about here, are paying 2.75 times wages on a public holiday, it has a significant impact on their bottom line.
The minister had been discussing with them the possibility of legislating additional public holidays around the Easter and Anzac Day period. If that happens, the impact on our tourism sector is going to be widely felt. The AHA did a survey of their membership to give an indication of what impact penalty rates have on quiet times in the territory. It is quite telling. They asked their members if they are closing or reducing services provided to guests or clientele as a result of penalty rates. Some 55.56 per cent of their membership responded yes. That is over half of the hospitality providers in this territory providing reduced services or no services through the Easter period as a result of penalty rates.
The other question that was asked was about those that do operate over that Easter period currently and how many of them turn a profit. It is quite disturbing to realise that only 11.11 per cent of businesses in the hospitality sector currently turn a profit during that Easter period.
So when we are talking about ways that we can diversify the economy, or talking about ways we can support small business, issues such as penalty rates certainly play a part. I welcome the discussion at any opportunity to talk about the impact penalty rates have on businesses here in the territory.
Other areas that we need to look at if we are going to encourage the economy to diversify include the rates and taxes that businesses are paying when they set up a premise or a site here in the territory. It is getting to the point now where it is becoming prohibitively expensive to set up premises here in the territory compared to other jurisdictions. Mr Rattenbury noted the increasing number of vacancies through not just commercial but also retail space across the city. That is twofold. Yes, there is an oversupply of space. But also the costs of operating out of that space are so prohibitive that people are not feeling confident enough to take that risk, to take the opportunity—potentially to put the family home on the loan, open up a venture and give it a go. I think that they are the sorts of things that need to be encouraged. People need to be encouraged to give it a go.
The Treasurer was keen to point out the number of new businesses over the last few years that have opened here in the territory. But he only gave half the story. The Australian Bureau of Statistics, in their latest business profile, talk about business entries and exits. For the 2012-13 period, the latest figures, we had a 12.3 per cent increase in the number of businesses opening their doors here in the territory. But that is contrasted against a 15.3 per cent reduction. So we are losing. The net out of that is a three per cent reduction in the number of businesses here in the territory. Those figures have been trailing down gradually over the last few years.
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