COVID economic recovery is set to dominate ACT politics over the coming year, as the recent Omicron wave has renewed calls for better support for the local economy.
But the ACT's recovery could be bolstered by an improved economic forecast for the territory's budget.
The ACT Legislative Assembly will sit for the first time in 2022 on Tuesday and Chief Minister Andrew Barr will use his first speech to talk up the territory's economic recovery plan.
He will say that COVID recovery will be "front and centre" for the ACT government over the year.
"The plan is focused on creating and protecting local jobs - in a diverse range of industry sectors including health, education, construction, retail, renewable energy, tourism and hospitality, and technical, scientific and professional services," Mr Barr will say.
Mr Barr will also use the opportunity to boast about record retail trade figures over November and December. More than $1 billion was spent over the two months - November was a record month with $616 million spent.
This should contribute to an better than expected outlook in the ACT government's quarterly financial report for three months to December, set to be released later this week.
But a survey of some Canberra businesses, released on Monday, revealed more than 70 per cent were worse off in January 2022 compared to December 2021.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the Liberals would focus on advocating for those who she felt had been forgotten in the pandemic. She said small businesses had particularly suffered under the government's response.
"We know that they are continuing to struggle, it has continued to be a challenge for camera families. And those are the people that we want to make sure are not falling through the cracks," she said.
The Canberra Liberals will call on the government to provide a renewed economic recovery plan, with opposition business spokeswoman Leanne Castley to bring forward a motion on Tuesday.
She said the plan needed to be updated to respond to the unique challenges presented by Omicron.
"Feedback from business is that patronage is still very low and many are making the decision to close indefinitely due to ongoing restrictions on capacity, singing and dancing," Ms Castley said.
"Parts of our economy are effectively locked down, but without any government support."
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Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said an important part of the COVID recovery would be on vulnerable people in the community who were disproportionately affected from the health risks of the virus.
"The ongoing impact of COVID and as the government we are going to have to continue to manage that. COVID is not about to disappear off our work plan," Mr Rattenbury said.
"I think there's a real focus for the government this year on those vulnerable pockets of the community who there's a risk we leave them behind, as everyone else has to get back to normal."
