The 2021-22 ACT Budget published this evening is a pandemic response budget, Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr announced.
“The Budget lays the groundwork for a rapid and sustained economic and jobs recovery – as we work towards our target of 250,000 local jobs by 2025,” he said.
The government is determined to grow the labour market to 250,000 jobs by 2025 and encourage investment to drive economic recovery. The Budget includes a $41 million package for key industries; $20 million for the tourism and arts sectors; and $8 million for business recovery.
The Budget is guided by three principles: investing in healthcare and essential services; protecting and creating jobs; and protecting the most vulnerable Canberrans.
Healthcare
More than half a billion dollars will be spent over the next four years to provide better healthcare, responding to the growing demand for core services and the increased complexity of health service delivery, Mr Barr stated.
This includes more than $90 million to contain the COVID-19 public health response and contain the spread of the virus, through a vaccination program, a Health Emergency Control Centre, quarantine and compliance activities, hospital and testing services, cleaning of public schools & transport, Pandemic Response & Public Information teams.
Vaccination was the path to rebuild the ACT’s economy and protect its people, Mr Barr stated, and he hopes to get as close to 100 per cent vaccination coverage as he can. “A highly vaccinated Canberra is a safer and more confident Canberra.”
Expanding the Canberra Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency Department, and more emergency surgery capacity are among major projects for the public health system.
The government will also expand establish a cancer research centre; provide more endoscopy services and elective surgeries; and set up a new surgery centre at the University of Canberra.
To modernize the ACT Ambulance Service, the ACT Government will hire more paramedics and buy five new low-emissions ambulances. More than 90 additional nurses and midwives will be recruited across Canberra Health Services and Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, at a cost of $50.1 million over four years. A dedicated coroner will be appointed, reducing delays for bereaved family, friends, and witnesses involved in inquests.
Jobs
Creating good, secure, long-term jobs in the ACT’s economy is vital, Mr Barr believes. During the pandemic, the ACT has lost more than 10,000 jobs, Mr Barr stated; over the next 12 to 18 months, the ACT Government intends to recover those lost jobs, and have 250,000 people working in the ACT by 2025. The ACT was close to that goal before the pandemic, when more than 240,000 people worked in the economy – and Mr Barr is adamant it can be achieved.
The pandemic had been particularly tough for young people starting out in their careers and those who have lost employment, Mr Barr said. The ACT will provide free training places for them, expanding JobTrainer to provide 2,500 additional places over the next two years.
Protecting the most vulnerable
In this budget and in the middle of the pandemic, Mr Barr said, the ACT Government’s priority was to support those on the lowest and medium incomes.
The ACT Government has budgeted $100 million for more and better affordable and public housing for low-income Canberrans at risk of homelessness – the largest investment in ACT public housing since self-government in 1988, and one of the single largest investments of any kind in that time. Social services and the opposition welcomed the investment, but said it was long overdue.
$75 million will support those most in need, including expanding homelessness services, increased funding for the community and multicultural sector, and more support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
“In one of the toughest periods in our city’s history, people must be able to reach out and get help when they need it,” Mr Barr said. “Support is available.”
The mental health system will be made more accessible for young people and their families, and alcohol and other drug services will be expanded.
“Young people in particular are suffering in the face of this global uncertainty, and separation from friends and loved ones,” Mr Barr said.
The ACT Government has also increased the utilities concession from $700 to $1,000 to help the most vulnerable households (some 75,000 to 100,000 people) meet their electricity, gas, and heating bills: “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of extra dollars of support,” Mr Barr said.
Infrastructure
The government has embarked on the largest infrastructure program in the ACT public sector’s history – an ambitious program that will keep Canberra’s construction sector very busy for four or five years, Mr Barr said. A $5 billion pipeline of local infrastructure projects will support more than 15,300 construction jobs. 250 projects and 14 programs of work are already underway.
Priority projects funded through this program include Light Rail Stage 2 from Civic to Woden, expanding Canberra Hospital, building the new CIT Woden Campus, growing and renewing more public housing, planning for new hospital infrastructure in Canberra’s north, additional walk-in centres, and building new and expanding schools in Gungahlin.
However, Mr Barr doubted whether there would be any major new projects (such as convention centres or stadia) until the second half of the 2020s.
“Don’t expect us to start building things that we have not undertaken any feasibility or forward design on until at least 2025 / 2026,” the Chief Minister said. Towards the end of the decade, once the budget was finely balanced, the ACT would be able to think about new projects.
“We’ve handed out more than $475 million dollars in either grants or tax concessions to businesses,” the Chief Minister said. “That’s the equivalent of a football stadium in money that’s been handed, necessarily and importantly, to businesses, to build a bridge for them over the pandemic.
“I would make that choice every single time; of course, you would support businesses during a pandemic and during a lockdown, but the opportunity cost of that is a range of things that would be lovely to have are just going to have to wait.”
Other initiatives
The ACT Government prides itself on leading the nation in responding to climate change and protecting the environment. $63 million will be spent over the next four years to reduce emissions and to keep Canberra’s bushland, suburbs, and waterways healthy habitats for animals, while the $150 million Sustainable Household Scheme will open to all eligible households and individuals in the ACT.
Thus, Mr Barr said, more Canberrans can share in the benefits of a zero-net emissions future, saving hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a year on utility bills through interest-free loans, and contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating jobs in the renewable energy sector.
A further $14 million will be spent to plant 54,000 new trees by 2024 – part of a plan to increase canopy cover to 30 per cent by 2045.
School students have faced additional challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic; the ACT Government will commit an additional $51 million to school equity programs over the next four years, to ensure children in local schools have equal opportunities.
Eleven local shopping centres will be upgraded over the next four years, local playgrounds will be refreshed, and new dog parks and toilet facilities constructed. Essential stormwater works will lay the foundation for restoration of the heritage-listed Sydney and Melbourne buildings.
The government intends to make Canberra Australia’s Arts Capital; more than $13 million will support local artists, arts organisations, and cultural facilities.
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