26 May 2014

Business investment partnerships the key to growing Canberra’s economy

| Andrew Barr MLA
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andrew-barr

Next month’s ACT Budget will contain measures to help businesses employ more people, and strategies to help public servants laid off by the Commonwealth into new businesses and entrepreneurship.

We will be targeting measures at the different demographics leaving the public service – younger people and people near retirement – to encourage them to stay in Canberra and enter into new businesses.

The Budget will also outline a combination of modest new borrowings and asset sales to raise money for new public health, education, transport and municipal infrastructure.

This will be a Labor budget and a contrast in philosophical approach to the federal budget.

It will contain prudent measures to support the Territory economy in the short term and look to maintain a balanced budget over the economic cycle.

We are not going to exacerbate the impact of the federal budget on the ACT economy and drive further misery and austerity.

There is a clear role for the ACT Government to support economic growth at this time particularly through strategic partnerships with the private sector.

We are prepared to take a short-term hit on some revenue lines to encourage growth, especially partnerships with local, national and international business.

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HiddenDragon11:40 am 29 May 14

In the short term, this is an understandable, and perfectly predictable, response from the local Labor-Green government to the hand they have been dealt by the Federal government (which would not likely have been that much better had Kevin Rudd won the last federal election).

What is lacking, though, is any realistic recognition of the longer term issues facing Canberra – the only options seem to be more and more borrowing, rates and other charges rising well above CPI or increases in typical Canberra household incomes, and the forlorn hope that federal spending will eventually be restored to the extent that it will reignite property revenues and thus save our fiscal bacon. That, to me, looks like denial with a capital “D” – at best, more of the stagnant same, at worst, a dangerous spiral – and certainly not a conducive environment for private sector economic activity which is unrelated to government spending.

Andrew, I was phoned by a robosurvey the other night. There was no disclosure of who had organised the survey, and no privacy information, which made me think it was put out by a political party. Because of the lack of privacy controls over government data collection, I didn’t answer and didn’t get as far as the light rail question. Was the robopoll put out by Labor?

curmudgery said :

The ACT Government could assist businesses of all sizes by becoming the first jurisdiction in Australia to abolish all penalty rates.

Abolishing penalty rates means people would be less expensive to employ. That’s a plus for business and the unemployed.

Surcharges and other ‘out-of-normal-hours’ charges would be difficult to justify and, where present, would provide the competition with a point of difference to market – all this to the consumer’s advantage.

We live in a 24/7 economy and an economy depends on consumers agreeing to make transactions.

Over to you.

Great suggestion (sorry, it will go nowhere because I have endorsed it)

The ACT Government could assist businesses of all sizes by becoming the first jurisdiction in Australia to abolish all penalty rates.

Abolishing penalty rates means people would be less expensive to employ. That’s a plus for business and the unemployed.

Surcharges and other ‘out-of-normal-hours’ charges would be difficult to justify and, where present, would provide the competition with a point of difference to market – all this to the consumer’s advantage.

We live in a 24/7 economy and an economy depends on consumers agreeing to make transactions.

Over to you.

Az said :

“We’re gonna borrow a ton of cash and spend it on stuff, even though we’re heaps in debt.

That’s the plan. Who’s with me?”

Clearly Andrew Barr is. That’s the only budget formula he’s ever used.

Ok, so I understand Riotact is now going to go down this path of allowing it to be a free-for-all for politicians (and former irrelevant politicians) to expound their views.

Fair enough if thats the way you want to go.

But can we do it without the massive scary pictures of them at the head of each of their posts?

Fair point. We will consider alternative options on images.

“We’re gonna borrow a ton of cash and spend it on stuff, even though we’re heaps in debt.

That’s the plan. Who’s with me?”

Why are only Commonwealth public servants being offered assistance to start new businesses?
Is this Barrs’ way of discriminating against conservative voters in the private sector that may lose their jobs too?
Are public servants valued more highly than private sector workers?
I think the Discrimination Commissioner should check this out.

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