The Canberra Liberals have published a booklet, Barr’s Bogus Budgets, listing more than 150 promises Treasurer and Chief Minister Andrew Barr made in Budget speeches over the last dozen years, and which the opposition claims he has broken.

“This is the usual juvenile electioneering Canberra has become accustomed to from the Canberra Liberals,” Mr Barr said. “Looks like it comes straight from the team behind Zed Seselja’s last campaign.”

The ACT Government has under-resourced housing, health, police, and schools, the booklet states. It lists the following examples:

• Mr Barr promised to make housing more affordable, to build better and more public housing, and to tackle homelessness — but Canberra has less public housing today than in 2018, and more than 3,000 people on the waiting list; the ACT has had the highest rate of long-term homelessness in the nation for six years; rents are the second highest, and house and apartment prices some of the highest in the nation; and rates on residential properties have doubled.
• Mr Barr promised the ACT would have a world-class education system. The NAPLAN results in reading, spelling, grammar, and numeracy have declined; and the ACT is underperforming in literacy, maths, and science. Teachers reported almost 7,500 incidents of occupational violence in 2022-23. Mr Barr promised to deliver more apprenticeships; there are fewer people in apprenticeships and traineeships.
• The ACT has the worst emergency waiting times in the nation, for five years in a row; elective surgery waiting lists and times are increasing, despite promises to deliver more; nurse-patient ratios have not been met; bulk billing rates have fallen, and infection rates in hospitals risen.
• Mr Barr promised to tackle family and domestic violence; instead, it rose by 35.6% between 2018 and 2023. The ACT has the lowest ratio of police-to-population in Australia; the Dhulwa secure mental health facility was a disaster; satisfaction in policing services has fallen; and Aboriginal recidivism rates are the highest in the nation.
• Mr Barr had not delivered a Budget surplus. The ACT lost its AAA credit rating in 2023 because of economic mismanagement. The ACT’s low net debt had risen to more than $5.6 billion by mid-2023.
• The government had not yet built the Throsby Home of Football, announced in 2019 and 2021; it had cancelled the Convention Centre (announced in 2014) and the surgery centre at the University of Canberra Hospital (announced in 2021).

“We know this government is good on announcements and spin but where they fail time and time again is on delivery,” opposition leader Elizabeth Lee said.

“What we have seen from Andrew Barr over the last two weeks are re-announcements on commitments he has made previously but failed to deliver to Canberrans.

“This includes the Gungahlin health centre that was one of five promised at the 2020 election, and the Athllon Drive duplication which was promised in 2016.

“We have also seen more announcements about the new theatre, convention centre and stadium which are announced every budget and every election, some of which were floated by Andrew Barr back in 2009.

“Canberrans are sick of hearing about feasibility studies, design concepts, and international study tours from Andrew Barr on major infrastructure projects. It is clear from all the delays and re-announcements he is incapable of delivering them.

“It is astounding that Andrew Barr and his Ministers can make these ‘announcements’ with a straight face and expect Canberrans to continue swallowing their false promises.

“A Canberra Liberals Government I lead will be upfront with the community and deliver on the promises we make,” Ms Lee concluded.

Chief Minister’s response

Mr Barr said that the ACT, like almost every other jurisdiction in Australia, like Australia itself, would have a deficit.

“I’m not here to deliver a surplus every year for ideological reasons,” he said. “I’ve got to respond to the economic circumstances that our jurisdiction faces and the needs of this community. The point of a budget is to meet the needs of the community. You do so within obvious fiscal constraints. But if the choice is a surplus for the sake of it, just so you can say you’ve done it…

“If Elizabeth Lee’s argument is that we should be slashing jobs and slashing public services starting from 1 July next week in order to meet some ideological surplus target, I would reject that.

“Budgets need to be balanced. They need to meet the needs of the community. The community was very clear [that] the government invest in health, in housing, in cost of living support, and they want to see the government get on to delivering the infrastructure that our growing community needs…

“[The Canberra Liberals] think that the people who should bear the greatest tax burden in the Territory are people trying to buy their first home, people whose family circumstances might mean a relationship has broken up and need to sell the family home and move into different accommodation. That is the view which is consistent with their position in 2012, 2016, and 2020.

“It just shows that nothing has really changed with the Canberra Liberals. They are the same conservative, backward-looking organisation that they have always been. There is no policy difference in 2024 from what we’ve seen in 2020 under Alastair Coe, in 2016 under Jeremy Hanson, or in 2012 under Zed Seselja.”