Open or slightly ajar…

Maybe you can help me with something?

What do you hear when a politician uses the phrase ‘open for business’?

I’m genuinely interested in your experience and insights, so email me at daniel.hobbs@sasgroup.net.au.

When it comes to this month’s Inside Word Queensland State Politics Report, there’s plenty of grist for the mill, but most of it is more Days of Our Lives and less The West Wing.

So, I’d like to focus this month on something that actually matters to Queensland’s economy and thus to families and communities.

While I welcome a Queensland that is ‘open for business’, my experience has been less open and more slightly ajar. I have clients whose path to development, approval or FID has been efficient. I have others who have been, or remain, left holding their breath while huge risk hangs in the breeze. The latter is largely the result of a regulatory environment governed more by bureaucratic process than commercially informed reality.

To be fair, part of this is of course that such a major shift in stance for an entire government takes time. Part of it is that the public service is not quite sure, at least not yet, how to put “open for business” into practice. And part of it is a Federal Government and global conflicts making capital attraction challenging.

That said, there remain plenty of ways to instil confidence, attract capital and truly open doors. Some on the list that follows have been unlocked since October 2024; many are still to be fully activated.

• Faster approvals and reduced red tape for major projects across mining, infrastructure, housing, and renewable energy.
• Incentives to attract private investment, including grants, tax relief, industrial precincts, and support for SMEs and technology industries.
• Strong backing for economic growth sectors such as resources, renewable energy, tourism, international trade, and major events.
• Investment in enabling infrastructure and workforce capability, including roads, ports, energy, skilled migration, and training programs.
• Pro-business policies and public-private partnerships designed to signal Queensland as a stable and attractive place to invest.

Depending on who says it, the phrase ‘open for business’ also carries implied political messaging, such as:

• “We are more business-friendly than previous governments.”
• “We support development over delays.”
• “We welcome interstate and foreign investment.”
• “We want jobs and economic growth.”

I’ve been in corporate and political functions of late where energy is high as a result of a plethora of opportunities across our great state. In those same functions, frustration is also brewing that rhetoric is not yet meeting reality. As we approach the halfway point in the first term of the Crisafulli Government, the honeymoon glow will soon become the grindstone of governing – as it does for all new administrations. Navigating that successfully requires the government to ensure that the lived experience of investors, developers and innovators aligns with the government’s political narrative. I look forward to discussing how your experience and SAS Group’s team of experts can make this happen.