Page 1692 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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action on climate change, protecting our environment and developing valuable community infrastructure.
We are taking bold and forward-thinking action on developing our city for the future through our focus on infrastructure development, transport innovation, land supply programs and investments in our health and education systems.
Our capital program remains at record highs, to support growth in services, the economy and invest in the growth of the city.
Mr Speaker, this Government has listened to the community and is responding to the needs of local business to support their growth.
We commenced early our consultation process for the 2010-11 Budget and have continued to engage with the community, stakeholders and representatives of industry in confirming our priorities and developing our Budget. In response to feedback from industry we will continue to drive our capital works program to provide certainty to the sector.
We are a Government that is not afraid of making tough decisions and will look to drive future improvements in the way we fund Government services for our growing city.
Mr Speaker, the ACT Budget was dealt a blow with the global financial crisis, and now we have to grapple with the outcomes of the GST carve-up from the Commonwealth Grants Commission and its adjustments to the ACT’s relativities.
The Government took the right decision last year to support jobs and investment through the worst of the financial crisis, rather than slash and burn funding and services. In an uncertain economic environment, we took deliberate steps to stabilise the economy. We avoided sharp adjustments in order to preserve services and support consumer and business confidence.
We did not take knee-jerk actions and our approach has been vindicated.
Mr Speaker, we have seen the positive effects of cyclical recovery and our local economy has performed strongly over the past 12 months in part through the Commonwealth’s stimulus measures and the local initiatives in which the ACT Government invested.
Despite the recovery in our economy, the losses sustained by our Budget will take longer to remedy. The origins of this structural deficit were in the fiscal shock of the global financial crisis and deficits were accepted on a temporary basis. The Budget’s underlying deficit is forecast to peak in 2010-11.
The net operating balance for 2010-11 is a deficit of $83.9 million. By the last of the out-years we expect the deficit to have reduced to $50.3 million.
Mr Speaker, there remain risks going forward. Trends in Commonwealth Government investment in the Territory will play a key role in our economic performance in the
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