Page 2827 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 6 October 2021
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We have supported our most vulnerable 31,000 households through a series of measures, including in this budget an increase in the utilities concession from $700 to $1,000 in this current fiscal year.
Budget overview
Our strong economic foundations—achieved through increased and efficient expenditure, regulatory and tax reforms, and continued support for local jobs and the most vulnerable—have placed the territory in a position to be able to respond and recover from this outbreak.
It is a position from which we can grow strongly again.
As the ACT approaches world-leading double vaccination rates, the territory government will turbocharge our contribution to support our economic and community recovery.
Today’s budget, and our longer term fiscal strategy, is designed with a simple purpose: to invest in essential services, to protect and create the maximum number of jobs across our city, and to continue to support the Canberrans who need that support most.
The jobs that we aim to create will be across the private sector, the community sector and the public sector. This is what we need to recover as quickly as possible.
We want to see a strong economic recovery leading into the Christmas and summer holiday period, and for this to be sustained into 2022 and beyond.
This emphasis now on significant fiscal stimulus, support for the most vulnerable, job creation and economic recovery is reflected in our headline net operating balance over the short term.
This fiscal year we are forecasting a deficit of $950 million. Across the forward estimates, the one-off expenditure that is required this year will not be needed—it will be tapered down—and the government is projecting improved revenues, with deficits reducing in each financial year down to below $500 million in 2024-25.
We are acting on the principles that:
• by investing today to support the economy, we are avoiding a bigger loss of economic output and jobs that would damage our economy and our community for years to come, and in fact place a larger strain on the territory budget;
• the territory’s balance sheet entering this crisis was in a strong position after decades of good economic and fiscal performance by the territory; and
• it is worth noting that the ACT’s financing costs have never been lower, with interest rates being the lowest since Australia federated in 1901.
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