A live music venue in Kingborough was recently required to spend $5,000 on a noise consultant. Not on soundproofing. Not on a single measure that made the venue quieter for anybody. Five thousand dollars on a report. For a small hospitality business running on thin margins, that is a month of wages, or the difference between putting a local band on and not bothering.
That is what red tape actually costs, and it is the reason Kingborough’s small business rate base is too small for a municipality of our size. Compared to councils like Clarence City, where a strong commercial sector shares the load with residential ratepayers, Kingborough relies too heavily on households to fund the services and infrastructure our growing community needs. Every business that decides Kingborough is too hard pushes more of that load back onto households. That has to change.
I hear a consistent message from business owners. They would love to operate in Kingborough, particularly those who already live here, but our development approval and planning processes are prohibitive. They find it easier, faster, and cheaper to set up in neighbouring LGAs. That is a loss to our ratepayers, our employment base, and our sense of community. Many of these people want to work near where they live, and we should be making that possible.
The test I will apply is simple. Before council imposes a cost on a business, someone should be able to say what problem the requirement solves, what it will cost the business, and whether a cheaper way of solving the same problem exists. In too many cases today, nobody is asked to answer that.
As Mayor, I will pursue a deliberate strategy to grow the commercial and industrial rate base so council can invest in infrastructure more wisely without continually pushing the cost onto households.
- Make Kingborough genuinely open for business by removing unnecessary planning and approval barriers for commercial and industrial development
- Court businesses considering Kingborough, with a clear pathway and a named point of contact inside council
- Develop a Kingborough Economic Development Strategy in partnership with local business and industry, working much more closely with Business South, formerly known as KHBEC, the Kingborough and Huon Business Enterprise Centre, which is jointly funded by Kingborough Council and Huon Valley Council to support small business growth across our region. I propose lifting Business South’s funding and effectiveness so it can do significantly more for our local small business community
- Identify and plan for commercial and light industrial land supply to match demand
- Support the local trades and construction sector through faster approvals
- Apply a proportionality test to conditions, reports and studies imposed on small business, so the cost of a requirement is weighed against the problem it is meant to solve
- Leverage Kingborough’s natural assets for sustainable tourism growth
- Use major projects such as Spring Farm Village, the Tasmania Devils AFL High Performance Centre, and the Jack Jumpers training presence as a platform for local job creation and economic benefit
A stronger business rate base means a more resilient council, lower pressure on household rates, and more jobs held by people who live here. This is fundamental.
