Page 1605 - Week 05 - Thursday, 15 May 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We will use our budget and our economic levers to maintain confidence and economic activity in the ACT where possible, looking hard at our revenue and expenditure to ensure we respond as best we can within our own constrained fiscal position.
In March we began stimulus measures to support our vital construction sector, working together with the industry on incentives for ongoing investment and building activity. We will continue with the commitment we made a year ago that, unlike other states which have slashed their public services, we will maintain our staffing levels with a focus on health and other front-line services.
Our next cabinet meetings will discuss all the impacts and factor them into the formulation of the ACT budget. But we are realistic about our own ability to respond to commonwealth cuts and, as nine per cent of the economy, our budget does not have the capacity to single-handedly maintain economic growth through stimulus.
Looking further ahead, we must look to the sources of strength which prepare us for this challenge far better than we were prepared when cuts of this scale last occurred, in 1996. After more than a decade of solid economic growth, we have a much bigger economy and population, a larger private sector and a stronger export orientation across industry.
We have also weathered two years of decline in commonwealth spending and the fundamentals of our economy, particularly our low unemployment rate, are stronger than they were in 1996. A decade of Labor reforms in the ACT has also built the platform for a significant diversification of our economy, which has begun to accelerate in recent years.
Our world-class researchers, IT professionals and academics have, together with government, taken the export reach of sectors in which the ACT excels to new markets and created important opportunities independent of the government sector. This work will continue, with greater intent and greater importance than ever before.
Wherever we can help Canberrans who may have the skills to transition from a government position to a private sector position, we will. Our business community has already shown itself to be an excellent facilitator of exactly this process and, again, it is imperative that the commonwealth provides assistance for this adjustment.
All Canberrans share a collective apprehension about what is in store for our city. There is no doubt we will be tested in the next couple of years. Canberra will always be known as a government town with an economy built first and foremost around the public servants who make Australian democracy work.
We will continue to stand up for our city—its workers, its families, its communities and its future. We will take each step as it comes but always with the wellbeing of all Canberrans foremost in our minds. I present the following paper:
Federal Budget—ACT Government response—Ministerial statement, 15 May 2014.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video