The new ACT Chamber of Commerce frontman has taken an approach that couldn't be more at odds with that of his predecessor, the late Chris Peters.

Where the much-loved Peters sought consensus at every turn, particularly with the territory's left-leaning government, his successor has wasted no time in voicing his disdain for the policies and spending habits of Katy Gallagher's ACT Labor.

And he doesn't seem that worried about making friends in the government wing of the Legislative Assembly.

Blyth burst into 2014 by publicly welcoming the Abbott government's cost-cutting crusade that includes its cull of the federal public service, arguing that Canberra fares best when the federal budget is in surplus.

Not even the ideological ultras on the far right of the local Liberal branch dare utter that heresy aloud, no matter how ardently they believe it.

Now he's unhappy with the amount we spend on our schools, hospitals and buses.

Not many outside the Transport Workers Union would quibble with that last point but the teachers' union reckons Blyth's comments on schools are "outrageous".

We suspect he'll wear that one with pride. Blyth's background, as staffer for industrial relations hardliner Kevin Andrews while the then Howard government minister helped cook up the ill-fated Work Choices policy, makes him an unconventional choice for Labor-voting Canberra.

But Blyth is a breath of fresh air in a public debate that has become more than a little stale.

Nearly 13 years of Labor rule in the ACT has led to the development of a cozy government-union clinch with the business sector a reluctant third party in the menage-a-trois.

The combative new style of the Chamber of Commerce is certainly good news for the media and Blyth's anything-but-boring approach ensures that his views will get coverage.

Whether he emerges as a genuine thorn in the Gallagher government's side remains to be seen, but there's little doubt that he'll be an irritant to the status quo and even less doubt about how much he's going to love it.