Page 3584 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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construction industry. We invested in infrastructure, with city-shaping projects like light rail, which are creating jobs and building confidence as well as stimulating urban regeneration right along the route. We saw investment in our health system grow, with the hiring of more medical staff, the opening of the Canberra Centenary Hospital for Women and Children and the beginning of the construction of the University of Canberra public hospital.
Beyond the negative economic blows, we were also affected by other adverse fiscal shocks. During this period we were also unavoidably hit with the Mr Fluffy crisis, which required the ACT government to take leadership and make tough but fair decisions. When the commonwealth failed to take responsibility for decisions pre self-government, we had no choice but to accept a significant loan to solve the issues threatening the health of Canberrans once and for all through the asbestos eradication scheme.
Throughout these shocks and challenges, the government has made smart use of the territory’s balance sheet to keep our city growing. The ACT’s budget went into deficit so that household budgets across Canberra did not have to. As the Standard & Poor’s report states:
To support the economy during the slowdown, the ACT’s fiscal strategy allowed it to maintain a high level of its own spending.
That strategy saw the government leverage our strong balance sheet for borrowing. Importantly, that financing was taken on to fund large-scale investments that will leave our city better off long after the money is repaid. As the report outlines:
We consider—
—that is, Standard & Poor’s—
the ACT’s debt management to be generally prudent, with debt used to fund capital expenditure and not operating expenses.
Madam Speaker, it is smart use of financing to fund the infrastructure needs of our growing city. That was not the approach advocated by the opposition. Instead of supporting economic stimulus for Canberra, they branded it “debt, deficit and deceit”. They would have replicated the approach of the New South Wales and Queensland governments of the time, doubling down on large-scale austerity at the expense of public services. They would have taken an axe to government in their short-sighted quest for a balanced budget, instead of providing the economic assistance that our city desperately needed.
Even as late as the last election, the Liberals would have torn up the light rail contracts, at the expense of $250 million of ratepayers’ money, which would have put our credit rating at risk, dampened business confidence and seen further unemployment. Their fiscal profligacy was further on display when they pledged to slow down the renewal of the Northbourne corridor, which would have seen the territory miss out on $60 million in payments under the commonwealth’s asset recycling scheme.
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