As they continue to grapple with the effects of the COVID pandemic, many of Canberra’s businesses feel that the ACT 2023–24 Budget published this week was a missed opportunity, and lacked vision.

Speaking at the Canberra Business Chamber ACT Budget Lunch on Wednesday, Chamber chairman, Archie Tsirimokos, said that Canberra, once “a place that was talked about as ‘the bush capital’”, had transformed into “a vibrant, modern, and future-looking city in which to do business”. The private sector now employed almost 60 per cent of the working population; the city had seen unprecedented growth of employment; and Canberra’s businesses were doing well interstate and internationally.

But businesses were affected by rising house prices, skills shortages and low unemployment rates, making it difficult to find employees; by rising interest rates; and by increases to the cost of goods.

“All these things suggest some strong headwinds are ahead of us,” Mr Tsirimokos said. “These headwinds need to be managed carefully, and business will need to take stock, reassess, and plan for a future which none of us could have predicted in early 2020 …

“The truth is businesses are people – people who take risk, who put their futures, their houses, and their dreams on the line to succeed. They are the backbone of our community, and the growth of the private sector in the ACT shows what can be done by those who believe in our community. Those same people need to make hard decisions to invest, to employ, to grow. But also, in times like these, to downsize, to retrench, or worse, close down their businesses, and their dreams with them.

“These pressures continue to increase, and are more real today than ever.”

In the Canberra Business Chamber’s opinion, the Budget did not do enough to support 34,000 local businesses struggling with “soaring costs, waning consumer confidence, workforce shortages, and persistent supply chain pressures”. Mr Tsirimokos called the Budget “a missed opportunity to address these critical issues head-on.”

The Chamber acknowledged initiatives for health, housing and to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.

“As a community, it makes a lot of sense that support for the most vulnerable members of our society goes to where it needs to go,” board member Kimberley Ohayon, general manager of CPA Australia, said.

Another board member, Richard Snow, head of property at Canberra Airport, said: “It’s a Budget that is steady as she goes, focused on education and health, as it should be, without really wanting to look like they’re spending too much.”

But Ms Ohayon thought the Budget’s vision “wasn’t as clear as it could have been”.

“The Budget is very much for here and now, and the economic situation that we’re in, [with] very targeted support measures.”

Nevertheless, she said, the Budget overlooked some opportunities in terms of supporting business.

“Businesses are facing many of the same cost-of-living pressures, compounded by workforce issues and a lot of external shocks that have happened over the past years,” she said.

“There was an opportunity to really look at how government could support business to build resilience to not only survive, but to thrive.”

For instance, Ms Ohayon said, the government had overlooked recommendations about increasing cyberthreats facing businesses, or workforce challenges.

Overall, Mr Tsirimokos said, the Chamber’s Budget submission had outlined 14 actionable steps, of which 10 required minimal or no financial investment, but the government had overlooked the recommendations.

Ms Ohayon was glad the Canberra Business Advice and Support would continue; the Chamber had called for its ongoing funding. The government will spend $304,000 over the next two years.

“It is important to recognise that the Canberra Business Advice and Support Service represents a baseline for SME support,” Mr Tsirimokos said. “The ACT government should work to evolve the nature and scope of support, providing further pathways for local small and medium enterprises.”

The Chamber had also recommended that the government incentivise small businesses and not-for-profits to access professional advice.

“In addition to these business advisory and support services, the government can introduce a support program to leverage the existing relationships small businesses have with their professional advisers,” Mr Tsirimokos said. “This is likely to reach greater numbers of small businesses in need of advice.”

Ms Ohayon said that she wanted to see relationships fostered with professional advisers, so that businesses got more specialised advice “early from advisers that they know and trust, [and] can identify early warning signs”.

Likewise, the Chamber had recommended the government reduce the regulatory burden to make it easier to start, run, and grow a business, and to reform procurement processes to better support local business: “Improving processes and policies within government, which could be low or no cost,” Ms Ohayon said. “Those delays in decision-making, being passed from area to area, cost business.”

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he would take notes and engage on the first proposal. He acknowledged that the regulation request was “a fair point”, and said that both an initiative in the Budget and the planning reforms would address the issue.

The Chamber had recommended the government address the lack of housing affordability in Canberra that limits staff attraction and retention, and develop a long-term workforce plan and skills strategy for the ACT. It acknowledged the $60 million affordable housing fund to increase affordable rental homes and partially combat the lack of affordable housing in Canberra, which it considers a barrier for staff attraction and retention.

“Affordable housing is only part of the puzzle when it comes to staff attraction and retention,” Mr Tsirimokos said.

“We need the ACT Government to commit to a long-term skills and workforce plan and work closely with the business community and the education and training sectors.” Mr. Tsirimokos said.

Ms Ohayon said the government’s Infrastructure Plan (still to be released at the time she spoke), the Canberra Switched On strategy, and the small business strategy it will release were “all real positives” – but called for government and business to work more closely together.

“The focus should be making sure that government isn’t delivering those strategies without business being integral and involved,” she said.

The Budget process highlighted the need for better consultation processes. On the one hand, Ms Ohayon said, there was a clear consultation process of getting involved, having Your Say, submissions, and round tables.

“But from a broader consultation on a number of initiatives across government, it is very ad hoc. Very often, we’ll hear from organizations or businesses that decisions are made, policies are changed, that can have really profound effect on their business or their livelihood. And once those decisions are made, there’s very little avenue to have those reversed or to negotiate around what those changes look like.”

Ms Ohayon called for more transparency and engagement around policy changes: “Genuine collaboration and relationship with government and business, not as adversaries, not business vs government, but as we’re all here to make the ACT a better place to live and work and do business.”

The Chamber said it would push for investment in better data to support economic growth, long-term planning, and policies to address issues that threaten the long-term survival of the Territory’s small to medium-sized businesses.