ACT Budget - Chief Minister Andrew Barr - video Dailymotion

Chief Minister Andrew Barr at ACT Budget outlook press conference

Transcript

00:00Thank you for your interest in the budget today.

00:04Look, this year's budget prioritises health, housing and cost of living and gets on with

00:13the delivery of infrastructure that our growing city needs.

00:17It's framed against a backdrop of a slowing economy, of cost of living pressures being

00:23felt differently by different sections of the community and it brings together the work

00:30of this parliamentary term, delivering on election commitments and parliamentary and

00:36governing agreement items.

00:38The budget sets out a pathway to meet the next phase of our city's growth and particularly

00:46focuses on the areas that the community identified in our budget consultation as priorities for

00:53the government to focus on in this year's budget.

00:57So we had more than 1,700 survey participants in our budget consultation, nearly 100 stakeholder

01:04groups submitted proposals and suggestions.

01:08It was the most extensive budget consultation ever undertaken and I think sets a benchmark

01:14for this sort of community participation and engagement ahead of the delivery of a budget.

01:20We were very conscious in framing this year's budget that some sections of the community

01:26are experiencing significant financial hardship, particularly those who have seen their mortgage

01:32interest rate costs rise considerably and those who are in the rental market who have

01:38experienced rent increases.

01:40Although we do note the impact in the ACT compared to some other cities and jurisdictions

01:47has been somewhat smaller, but nevertheless we recognise some people are doing it tough

01:53in our community at the moment and so the budget has a particular emphasis on targeted

01:58cost of living support.

02:00We were very conscious of the decisions that the Commonwealth had made in their budget

02:05and so tailored our cost of living package to address some identified gaps that we saw

02:12in terms of sections of the community who weren't being supported as much.

02:17So seeking to put more resource into programs that we have already been running that were

02:23being very heavily—and examples of that include our education equity fund, our utilities

02:30concession and the taxi subsidy scheme.

02:34So in totality we've sought to balance the competing economic needs and community needs

02:42in this budget whilst investing very heavily in health.

02:45Unashamedly, the biggest area of expenditure in the budget is health.

02:50It accounts for nearly $1 in $3 in the territory budget, but of course in any ACT budget there

02:57will also be new initiatives in education with our local government service responsibilities,

03:03in city services and we have focused particularly on housing, both additional housing supply

03:11through an expanded land release program and a range of tax measures that make it cheaper

03:18and easier for people to get into their first home.