Page 2186 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2022
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while there was a case for supporting Canberra’s economy in the short term during COVID—and I quote:
The current gap between spending and taxation is not … sustainable over the medium term, and as soon as practicably possible the government will need to put in place a more detailed strategy to return the budget to balance and start repaying debt.
It is not just the Canberra Liberals who are saying that the budget position created by the Treasurer is unsustainable; the Treasurer’s own directorate has warned about it. It went on to say:
… continuing to run deficits will reduce the government’s capacity to respond to any future economic shocks and if sustained lower the ACT’s capacity to access market finance putting at risk the government’s capacity to deliver services.
Standard & Poor’s indicated—and I again quote:
… downward pressure on future ratings could emerge if the ACT’s deficits turn out to be larger or more prolonged than expected, resulting in a steeper rise in the debt burden than currently forecast.
Of course, that is exactly what has happened. In 2019-20 our net debt ballooned to $3.3 billion. In 2021 it climbed to $4.36 billion, and in 2021-22 it was $5.36 billion, and forecast to be over $9 billion by 2024-25. It is not sustainable.
The Treasurer also liked to talk about cuts, so let us talk about those cuts. The Treasurer was the education minister who closed 23 schools before COVID. He reduced funding to ACT schools by over three per cent every year between 2011 and 2020. He systematically cut funding for health since 2015-16—again, before COVID—to the point where our health frontline staff are at breaking point and we have people dying in the corridors of our hospitals.
The Canberra Hospital expansion announced in 2011 under Katy Gallagher will not be delivered until the late 2020s—15 years for this government to extend an existing hospital. We also know that the ACT has the lowest police per capita and the lowest funding per person for police, and that there are less public housing dwellings in 2021 than in 2011. We know about this Treasurer’s cuts, so if he wants to talk about cuts, let us make sure that we add those to the mix.
If the only argument that this Treasurer has is to compare me to Campbell Newman, Joe Hockey or Tony Abbott, he is literally clutching at straws. These references are over 10 years old. If that is the only thing that he has, to compare me to Campbell Newman, Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott, seriously, where are we going to be?
It is clear that he will not listen to his own directorate, that he will not listen to the opposition, that he will not want to listen to an independent voice on a budget, and that he will not listen to the community that is crying out regarding making sure that public housing is okay, making sure that our health system is okay and making sure that our education system is okay. It begs the question: who will he listen to?
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