Queensland business not confident of Olympic boom

Less than 20 percent of Queensland businesses believe they will benefit from the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Business Chamber Queensland today released an insights paper in the lead-up to the October State election which shared the views of thousands of businesses across the state.

Chamber CEO Heidi Cooper said the 2024 State Election Business Blueprint revealed only 18.3 percent of businesses surveyed were confident their business would benefit from the Olympics.

Ms Cooper said the data showed just six percent of businesses agreed the State Government was planning for their long-term economic future.

“The 2024 State Election is the chance for genuine business policy reform.

“Policy reform must be based on a solid economic strategy and long-term planning, to give businesses relief from compounding pressures of today and clarity on how they can benefit from Queensland’s economic future.”

Other Olympics-related data showed 77.1 percent thought it was important the regions benefited from the Games and 86.8 percent either agreed or strongly agreed the State Government’s big build infrastructure plan should commit to ensuring a proportion of work supplied should come from Queensland businesses.

Ms Cooper said throughout the research, 75 business topics were put to Queensland businesses to test sentiment, with all issues compounding to have significant impacts on business.

She said among these pressures were historically high wage costs, escalating energy costs, low productivity and increasing regulatory burden along with significant macro issues around inflation and interest rates.

“Businesses told us they want to take part in long-term economic opportunities, but they’re facing significant headwinds every day,” Ms Cooper said.

“We’re seeing the longest sustained period of low business confidence in the past 30 years.”

Ms Cooper said more than 80 percent of businesses were concerned about inflation, while more than two thirds had major or critical concerns about interest rates.

She said businesses also raised concerns about declining productivity, with nearly three quarters of businesses expressing concern about the impact of the current workplace relations system on labour productivity and 67 percent holding major concerns about the level of economic productivity in Queensland.

What businesses said:   

Only 6 percent of respondents say the Queensland Government is planning for their businesses’ long-term economic future.
95.4 percent of respondents are not satisfied with the level of government support.
Only 5.3 percent of businesses say Queensland’s current economic policies support their business growth.
64.4 percent of businesses have major or critical concerns about interest rates and the cost of finance.
67.5 percent have major or critical concern about the level of productivity in the Queensland economy.
80.7 percent have major or critical concern about inflation.
77.2 percent of businesses are concerned about energy costs.
62.7 percent have major or critical concerns about transport costs.
46.5 percent are concerned about telecommunications costs.
41.3 percent of businesses have major or critical concerns about water costs.
55.8 percent of businesses have major or critical concern about regulatory compliance.
77.3 percent are concerned about the level of government regulation.
Only 4 percent agree it’s easy to procure to government.
67.5 percent of businesses have major or critical concerns about the level of productivity in the Queensland economy.
67.3 percent of businesses have major or critical concerns about recruiting employees with appropriate skills.
57.6 percent are concerned about retaining skilled employees.
60.1 percent respondents have a major or critical concern about the overall complexity of the state tax system and payroll tax specifically.
60.9 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree the current state of the Queensland economy is reducing their business’s capacity and interest to employ new apprentices and trainees.
63.2 percent of businesses have major or critical concerns about housing accessibility and affordability which limits their ability to employ staff.
43.2 percent of respondents have major or critical concern about access to adequate transport infrastructure.
Telecommunications infrastructure is a major or critical concern for 45.6% of respondents.