Property

By Catherine Carter

THE Chief Minister’s recent Economic Stimulus Roundtable to brainstorm ideas for insulating the ACT economy and Canberra businesses from the worst effects of a national economic downturn was timely, important and extremely productive.
“The prosperity of our private sector – and the jobs and livelihoods that depend on the prosperity of that sector – are at stake here and the ACT Government has no intention of sitting back and waiting to see what the effects of the national downturn are on our local economy,” said Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.
The roundtable was all as promised. Discussions were stimulating, both government and private- sector representatives offered and studied ideas and Chief Minister Stanhope particularly welcomed the Property Council’s ACT infrastructure priorities paper.
The council’s paper used a multi-criteria analysis developed by the Centre for International Economics to identify a top 10 infrastructure priorities, projects with high importance in economic, social, environmental, good governance and strategic terms.
Infrastructure is the spine and skeleton of any community. So working on Canberra’s infrastructure should be a vital part of any plan to both stimulate the ACT economy and improve its sustainability.
That means we need to reduce current roadblocks to infrastructure work. For example, helping ACTPLA approve development applications on time, and even expediting approvals for projects that create jobs would reduce investment disincentives.
It would also be useful to roll out the capital works program quickly – even if that means contracting out some or all of its management.
A building tune-up program would help – especially with incentives for green buildings conversions and initiatives. Continued commercial land release would help as would, of course, seriously avoiding the addition of any more new taxes on property.
The Chief Minister said: “A number of priorities on the Property Council’s list coincide with the ACT Government’s own thinking and planning. For example, the Very Fast Train and the upgrade of the Monaro Highway are two of the projects submitted by the ACT Government to Infrastructure Australia for funding consideration.”
Catherine Carter is executive director of the Property Council of Australia (ACT) and a member of the Economic Stimulus Roundtable.