Page 3552 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021
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Australian government procurement, also now being in the business of exporting. And that is where we get access to much larger markets.
Our procurement market inside the ACT just on ACT government goods and services procurement is necessarily limited by the size of our budget and the size of our procurement programs. If your vision for your business growth and opportunity is solely contained within the borders of the ACT, then you are clearly missing out on a range of much bigger markets. Even if your vision is only to go to the next state, to look into the New South Wales market, then clearly you have an opportunity to access New South Wales government procurement, maybe just in our region or maybe more broadly, on a scale that is significantly bigger.
This is an important feature of the Australian Constitution. Section 92 refers to free trade between the Australian states and territories. So it is a source of constant amusement for me when I get questions from those opposite around why we are not effectively putting up tariff barriers and procurement barriers to access government procurement. It certainly is because not only would it be detrimental to value for money for the ACT government from its procurement but it would also then close off 98 per cent of Australian government procurement from the other states and territories for ACT businesses if the policy approach was that you must procure only from firms in your jurisdiction. If every other state and territory government adopted that approach in breach of the Australian constitution, as is being advocated by those opposite, ACT businesses would lose significantly.
The future for small jurisdictions is free trade. You access much greater markets and your growth potential is significantly greater, which is why we are in the business of supporting the Australian constitution and free trade between states and territories and why we are in the business of supporting free trade—genuine free trade, not preferential trade agreements, which are largely what have been struck in recent times, but genuine free trade. It allows for specialisation and allows firms in this city who are nation- and world-leading to access those massive markets.
The ACT is two per cent of the Australian economy. Australia is about two per cent of the world economy. To grow, to go from being small or medium to being medium or large, you must be able to access a bigger market than 440,000 people and a $43 billion economy. Pleasingly, we are seeing, to the tune of billions of dollars each year, ACT businesses embracing the opportunities that are there in the broader Australian market and indeed internationally. And that is a key part of the government’s economic diversification agenda and the facilitation of that through the economic development directorate is an important part of this year’s budget, as it has been for each of the last 10 budgets that I have delivered as Treasurer.
What we are looking to do is continue that growth path. We will have more data, confirm the direction of our economic recovery in the coming weeks and months. If I have an opportunity again later in the budget debate next week and there are new datasets that become available, I will update the Assembly. But the trend is very good. We look forward to solidifying this economic recovery.
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