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Canberra’s Private Sector Adopts a Global Focus

CANBERRA’S private sector leaders are open to learning from the past, but aren’t in the business of dwelling in it. The Community Public Sector Union’s predictions that the Coalition government’s plan to cut 12,000 public sector jobs over the next three years will have similar economic recession implications as the Howard government’s cuts to the APS between 1996 and 1999 have been dismissed.  Business leaders and the ACT Government say Canberra’s local economy is much stronger than it was 17 years ago and they are committed to further diversifying its $50 billion economy by looking to Canberra’s airways for new business opportunities.

Latest figures from the Australian Public Service Commission report a total of 168,580 people are employed under the Australian Public Service Act 1999, with 40 per cent of those Australian Public Service roles located within the ACT.

The Community Public Sector Union (CPSU) have estimated 8,427 public service jobs will be cut in the ACT over the next three years, with concerns that numbers may increase if the Federal Government don’t meet their budget commitments. If the CPSU’s predicted numbers are correct, 11 per cent of Canberra’s public sector jobs will be lost through redundancies and natural attrition.

CPSU Public Service Organizer, Beth Vincent-Pietsch, says the cuts will cost Canberra’s local economy an estimated $650 million in lost incomes. “We think this is quite dire,” she told NowUC “we’re very concerned about the impacts, not just for the workers but for every Australian.”

Ms. Vincent-Pietsch says the CPSU is worried there will be similar economic implications for the ACT’s local economy as there was in 1996 under the Howard government, when Canberra’s economy fell into a recession. “We’re very worried,” she said “Before [the Howard coalition] came into government they said they would cut 2,500 jobs…three years later over 31,000 jobs had gone from the public sector. The impact here on the local community was vast. The whole local community went into a recession, house prices dropped, businesses closed up, there was a mass exodus and the ripple effect touched the whole region.”

Today’s strong housing market and lower interest rates are what Managing Director of the Capital Airport Group, Stephen Byron, says are the underlying differences between Canberra’s economy now and when it fell into recession in 1996. But, he says, understands why people are worried history could repeat. “As human beings, we look to what happened last time,” he said, “The great positive now is we have a really strong housing economy. It’s a bigger part of the Canberra economy now, it’s in good shape and it’s strong. That is the central difference about why it will be different this time.”

Chief Executive Officer of the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Andrew Blyth, admits that potential job cuts in the public sector are already having negative effects on small businesses in the Canberra region. But as long as future cuts are through natural attrition, he isn’t concerned it will dramatically affect Canberra’s economy in the long term.

“Yes there will be some job losses; we already saw job losses under Labor,” he said, “We already started to see some of that contraction of the Federal Government and that flowing through into small business. Then the public service started to grow again. I am pretty sure we’re not going to see Northbourne Avenue come to a standstill with removal vans.”

Mr. Blyth told NowUC the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry would be driving the need to see Canberra’s second century as “the private sector century,” and is thinking strategically about Canberra’s future by identifying and supporting its primary industries which include Canberra’s research institutions as well as the Canberra Airport Group’s $480 million dollar ‘AirVolution’ project.

The AirVolution project, located in Brindabella Park, currently boasts an award winning airport, with a premium hotel and the introduction of domestic budget and international flights soon to come. An investment Mr. Stephen Byron says he is confident will boost Canberra’s local economy. “Our job now is twofold,” he said, “it’s international flights; connections to Asia, particularly Singapore…We will deliver that over the next 12 to 18 months and I think that’s a huge transformation option for the town. Secondly is low cost airfares… Canberra would be the only airport of three million passengers without a low cost airline… That’s a huge opportunity for our tourist economy, which is not dependent on government.”

ACT Minister for Economic Development, Andrew Barr, told NowUC the AirVolution project is a “win-win” for Canberrans and local businesses alike, supporting The Canberra Airport Group’s plan to connect the nation’s capital with some of Asia’s major business hubs.

With a future that could lie in manufacturing, distribution and exports, Mr. Barr says the ACT Government has particular interest in potential products coming out of Canberra’s education and research institutions. “We have the advantage of a number of public and allied research institutes; I understand about ten per cent of the nation’s research effort is conducted within the ACT, which has significant opportunity for commercialisation of some of the work that is occurring” he said.  Drawing on the commercial and economic success of the CSIRO’s invention and commercialization of Wi-Fi technology, Mr Barr is confident Canberra has the facilities and the expertise to create and export products of similar success. “The ACT will never be a place where we manufacture lots of little trinkets. We’re more likely to make five one-million dollar items that we sell, rather than one million five-dollar items. It just a different sort of economy,” he said.

Mr Barr told NowUC the ACT Government will be making land available near the airport for business and would like to see opportunities such as Canberra’s convenient geographical location, competitive taxations arrangements around stamp duties and lighter payroll tax thresholds, taken advantage of by national and international stakeholders who are looking to set up new distribution hubs in Australia.

By EMMA BOURKE

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