According to the Canberra Business Chamber, the biggest issue plaguing the business community is a local skills shortage.
“For those with the potential to grow, it’s the labour market and having difficulty finding the people they need,” Chamber CEO Graham Catt said.
Kieran Hynes, founder of local IT and cybersecurity business Willyama, told Canberra Daily he has recently struggled to find skilled labour.
Despite bringing on 30 employees since the start of COVID, Willyama has needed to scale further after winning a Federal Government contract.
“It’s a massive project for us, it’s very significant. The challenge is finding all the staff in Canberra to fill that role so we’re now actually leveraging a satellite site for us in Adelaide,” Mr Hynes said.
Ms Hynes is finding locally-based cybersecurity professionals getting offered $50,000 a year more than what the market would normally dictate.
“We probably made 20 to 25 offers in the last three to four weeks in Canberra and only had five accept,” he said.
Minister for Business Tara Cheyne said a number of policies are in place to help address skills shortages in Canberra.
These include subsidised VET qualifications and the recent JobTrainer program that saw more than 1,500 people undertake a free qualification in an area of identified skills need.
“We regularly consult with industry and employers on skills needs, which helps to inform our ACT Critical Skills List (for skilled migration) and Skills Needs List,” she said.
ACT Government “running parallel” with business sector
As far as local government supporting local business more broadly, Mr Hynes said in his experience the ACT Government have tended to ignore Canberra-based businesses through their procurement processes.
“I’ve spoken to 10 or 15 IT and cybersecurity businesses, all locally owned … none have been engaged to provide services to the ACT Government,” Mr Hynes said.
“If the Government wants to create employment opportunities in Canberra, my suggestion would be that they need to support Canberra-owned businesses.”
From what I’ve observed, the ACT Government has never had a real understanding for business.
Kieran Hynes
While acknowledging “it’s not government’s responsibility to keep businesses floating”, Mr Hynes said the small business sector is the economic driver for growth in most economies.
“Canberra has a significant business sector, and the Government appears to be running in parallel to it rather than engaging with it,” he said.
“If they continue to support these private equity funded and national businesses to the detriment of Canberra businesses, we’re back to the point where then the Canberra businesses flounder.”
According to Ms Cheyne “competitive local businesses” are given “every opportunity to compete for government contracts” through their Canberra Region Local Industry Participation Policy (LIPP).
The LIPP means all Territory entities must consider local capability and economic benefits for the Canberra Region when determining the best available procurement outcome.
“The aim of the LIPP is to encourage competitive local businesses to grow and develop their capabilities, and ultimately support more jobs,” Ms Cheyne said.
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