Page 3299 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Treasurer’s Advance—Part 1.23.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Capital works reserve—Part 1.24.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Total appropriations.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Clauses 1 to 10, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Title.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism) (12.12): This is the last speaking opportunity before the bill is put to a vote, so I want to take the opportunity to thank members for their contribution to the budget debate and to thank the Select Committee on Estimates for their report into the Appropriation Bill.
As members are aware, putting the budget together each year is no small task. I acknowledge the significant effort from officials in Treasury, the directorates and indeed across the entire ACT public service. I would like to specifically acknowledge and thank Under Treasurer Stuart Hocking, departing Deputy Under Treasurer Sue Vroombout, and Stephen Miners, our other Deputy Under Treasurer, as well as their respective teams.
This is the third of five budgets in this parliamentary turn. I want to acknowledge the work of the team within my office, particularly led by Faheem Khan and Brittany Atkins, who manage the budget process within my office. But I thank all of the staff across the executive who contribute to assisting their ministers through this budget process.
I thank my ministerial colleagues for their engagement throughout the budget process and the many, many ERC meetings. As I mentioned earlier in the debate, the process requires thousands of difficult decisions that balance competing priorities. These are challenging decisions and every budget requires them to be made, but I believe we get the balance right in our decision-making process.
The last two years have not been easy as we have managed the impacts of the pandemic, but the territory economy has outperformed expectations. It has been resilient and flexible and is expected to continue growing over the coming years. This budget balances the need to continue to improve our fiscal position, which it certainly does, with the need to invest in the services that a rapidly growing city needs.
I commend the title and the budget to the Assembly.
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