The ACT government's local procurement spend plummeted from 54 per cent to just 34 per cent over the past six years, while the territory confirmed it does not centrally track how much of its multibillion-dollar budget is actually reaching local small businesses or Indigenous enterprises.
Although overall expenditure on major invoices surged by nearly 80 per cent since 2021 to a peak of $2.91 billion, analysis by The Canberra Times using Australian Business Register (ABR) data of the notifiable invoices register - which records GST-inclusive payments of $25,000 or more - revealed a marked shift in contracts staying or leaving the territory.
An ACT government spokesperson defended the figures and said ABR data could be misleading as it recorded a registered address rather than an "operational footprint".
