Page 2060 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018
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that the impact from light rail construction on the trade of local businesses has major consequences.
The Canberra Liberals believe local businesses deserve better, and this is why I am bringing forward this motion. It is to get acknowledgement from this government that businesses have been short-changed and to start a conversation about options to help these businesses that have been negatively affected.
Let us start with the first part of this motion—acknowledging that light rail stage 1 construction has had an impact on businesses. How do I know this? Quite frankly, I have simply been talking directly with business owners. After receiving feedback I increased doorknocking, did more visits to local businesses, held forums and sent out letters that made time for coffee and a chat with business owners. Businesses have been telling me without exception that this project has had a significant impact on their livelihoods.
Businesses are reporting between a 30 per cent and 50 per cent decline in trade. This means less customers, less income, less profits if any, less incentive to invest, less jobs and less growth. As a direct result, business owners are trying to cut costs by reducing staff, cutting hours, delaying payment of creditors, taking on additional debt, eating into savings, not paying themselves a wage for months at a time, and some are even looking to sell.
Let me tell the story of one cafe owner. I will not disclose his identity or business name but I want to share how the light rail construction has hurt his business. He runs a cafe which previously enjoyed strong trade and was a particular favourite of locals to sit outside in what was a busy, vibrant area. Ever since construction started the business has experienced a significant decline, so much so that the owner has stopped talking to his family about the state of his business. Worse still, his wife is expecting their first child very soon, and rather than being happy and looking forward to the future he spends his days and nights worrying about what is next. He is too depressed, too upset by it all and feels that this experience has actually changed his character as a person. Sadly, this is not unique.
What makes this situation even worse is that the government’s own environmental impact study assessed the risks to local businesses as residual, the lowest possible level of impact in a traditional risk matrix. This was based on the assumption that the impact of construction on businesses would be “possible” and the consequences of this impact would be “minor”. What a disgrace. Do local businesses not rate as part of the environment? This same assessment looked at things like trees, the risk of bushfires and climate change, but in the eyes of this government business owners are not as important. Clearly, their priorities are completely out of whack.
How could any rational person with just the slightest of common sense not understand that this construction would have a big impact on local businesses? Light rail is a major infrastructure project that has closed down streets, changed traffic flows, removed parking and impacted on the look and feel of suburbs and business precincts. The flow-on effect should have been obvious.
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