ACT election 2020: Canberra businesses needs government which says 'Yes', not 'No', says Alistair Coe

In a largely tame election debate with Chief Minister Andrew Barr on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Coe said Canberra businesses needed a government which said "yes" as a default position.

Referencing a recent National Australia Bank study which found ACT businesses endured the longest wait times in the country to obtain non-property-related permits, Mr Coe questioned whether all of the existing licence requirements were necessary - although he did not single out which ones he might scrap if the Liberals win next month's ACT election.

"If the planning system is working as it should, if all of the regulatory arms are working as they should be, is it really worth making people jump through all of these hoops to then charge them $224 for a licence for X or a licence for Y?" Mr Coe asked the Canberra Business Chamber's leaders debate.

"I think we have to go back to first principles and make an assessment - do you want businesses in the ACT or not?

"When you look at the schedule of fees and charges in the ACT, you see the thousands of fees and charges for every type of licence under the sun.

"Are they all needed, or do they just create too much work for a public service and too big an obstacle for people to actually go into business?"

Mr Coe and Mr Barr did not use the platform of Tuesday's debate to announce any new policies, choosing instead to restate their respective visions for Canberra's economy as it recovers from the coronavirus-induced economic slump.

The Labor leader highlighted the strong position in which the ACT entered the once-in-a-century crisis that is COVID-19, noting the economy had grown by $3.8 billion under his watch over the past four years.

Mr Barr said the territory's population had increased by almost 25,000 people and more than 4000 new business had started trading since 2016, in a subtle pushback against Mr Coe's claim that Canberrans have been spilling over the border into NSW because of the capital's high taxes and land prices.

Setting out his credentials to steer Canberra's economic recovery, Mr Barr said the ACT government now more than ever needed to "step up and play a major role in our city's economic development".

"There has never been a more important time for an experienced team to lead the territory through the next four years," he said.

Mr Coe said if the "COVID opportunity" was handled properly then the ACT could rebuild an economy stronger than the one which entered the crisis.

He repeated his long-stated argument that Canberrans deserved better services for the "world-class taxes" they were paying.