Katy Gallagher:
Thank you everyone for coming. It’s great to be here with my Federal Labor colleagues. A really strong budget for Canberra, a good budget that has the Commonwealth working with the ACT government on all of the issues that Canberrans care about. This Budget and the investment in it brings to a total of about an additional $4.3 billion in investment in the ACT since we’ve come to government. It’s in our investments, in our national institutions, in our public service, but also importantly, in our infrastructure and in the future needs of the city.
This Budget has a lot in it for Canberra, we’re very proud of it. I’m particularly – and I’m going to hand to others, but I’m particularly proud of the $30 million dollar investment for the RSPCA, which will finally mean that that organisation that does such important work in Canberra can finish the new build of the best RSPCA the city could hope for. So I’ll hand to my colleagues, but this budget overall, strong for Canberra obviously has some Canberra‑based initiatives, but also importantly, those national programs, national investments, whether it be on tax or in resilience and reform, all have an impact here in our city.
Andrew Leigh:
Thanks so much, Katy. This Budget recognises Canberra’s dual role as a wonderful community and as the nation’s capital. It invests in roads, rail and housing. Provides tax cuts to 260,000 working Canberrans, but it also invests in the national institutions, including MoAD, recognising Canberra’s unique role as the nation’s capital. It’s a serious housing budget, and for the many Canberrans who have chatted to me on street stalls, they’ll be valuing the way in which we invest in the enabling infrastructure for housing developments and rebalance the tax settings so as to favour people who are aiming to buy a home of their own. There’ll be many Canberrans who are dreaming of turning the key in the lock of their first home, and this Budget helps unlock that opportunity.
And as the Assistant Minister for Productivity, I’m really proud of the productivity package, which has been modeled to add some $13 billion to GDP. That’s around $1,200 for every Australian household through reforms like taking away the cost of buying standards and making approvals easier for the homes we need to build around Australia. I’ll hand over now to Alicia.
Alicia Payne:
Thanks, Andrew. This is another great budget handed down by Jim Chalmers last night, not just for our nation, but for our community here in Canberra. Obviously, with the situation that it is in the world at the moment, we could have had every excuse to do a budget that’s squibbed on the hard reforms. But we have focused on the costs of living that Australians are facing, and particularly the housing crisis that Australians are facing, including here in Canberra. The tax reforms that we are making are really important to ensure that particularly first‑home buyers will have a fairer playing field as they try to get into that market.
And we’re also investing in a really great measure that I’d like to talk about briefly, where we’re addressing a disparity for young people facing homelessness. We know that too many Australians, young Australians, are facing homelessness. And at the moment, social housing sort of can’t afford to offer places to young people because of the way that the benefits they receive translate into the funding. And so we have addressed that disparity for young people, and this has come as part of the Home Time campaign, have really raised the voices of young Australians facing homelessness, including in our community here in Canberra. And this is going to make a big difference for social housing providers being able to offer them a stable home so they can build their lives.
I’m so proud to be part of our government that continues to invest in our city and recognise its importance as the nation’s capital, but also as a community with the challenges that other communities face. I talk a lot about how wonderful it is as a Canberran and to see the Prime Minister out and about, you know, walking around the lake, visiting our national institutions, and talking about our city as not somewhere to be ashamed of, but somewhere to be proud of. And this Budget is another budget that invests in our city. We’ve invested $4.3 billion since we’ve been in government into Canberra.
I’m particularly proud that this is another budget that invests in our national institutions, around $20 million, including for the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, which has its centenary coming up, and that is absolutely a much loved institution by everyone in our community and around the country. And also for the National Film and Sound Archive to continue protecting the national collections. In the previous government, these institutions were starved of the funding they needed, and it’s good to see that we have restored that, but we are continuing that investment. And of course, Canberrans will benefit from the extra tax cuts we’re delivering in this Budget and the immediate cost of living relief that that will provide. This is a great budget for our country and for Canberra, and I hand over to David Smith.
David Smith:
Thanks Alicia, this, this Budget is both a recognition of an investment in intergenerational fairness and also a massive investment into the hard work of our housing supply in Canberra and across the nation, and again, an ongoing investment in affordable, accessible healthcare for Canberrans. More than 2 million scripts have passed through pharmacies. For residents have been and I think, pretty similar numbers from for my colleagues across the ACT, more than 2 million and there’s there are more medicines going on the PBS list, and so we’ll see greater access to those affordable scripts.
At the same time, a guarantee of ensuring that the urgent Medicare, urgent care Medicare clinics become permanently funded. The new clinic in Phillip has already had more than almost 3.5 thousand visits already. We know that this is critical to address both fairness and health concerns for Canberrans across the board. This is a budget that delivers for Canberrans broadly.
Journalist:
Minister, is it disingenuous to say that you’re investing $4 billion in the ACT when about $2 billion of that is going towards a national security precinct that probably won’t have any bearing on the lives of civilian Canberrans.
Gallagher:
Well, I mean the comments I’ve made about the $2 billion, well, we one we haven’t released the figure on the National Security Office precinct because that is not disclosed. It’s not for publication, but that building is the largest infrastructure project in the ACT at the moment. So what it does to underpin the economy and support local jobs and support the broader economy and families within it is very important. I think, any other jurisdiction if you had a big infrastructure project, even though it might not directly impact your individual life, would understand the economic benefit it brings to the city. And when I was Chief Minister, I remember the private sector here saying to me, Katy, we always need one big infrastructure project at a minimum, whether it’s the ASIO building, whether it’s the airport, light rail would qualify, and that is the role of the National Security Office precinct. It will also house the jobs of 1000s of Canberrans when it’s complete.
But if you look across the board, and look right across whether it be health housing, the investments we’re making in infrastructure, on roads, in health care. You can see that this government is responding to the needs of Canberrans. We work with the ACT Government on all these matters. We’ve got the Aquatic Center being built. We’re working on the convention center. We’ve got work underway out at Bruce at the AIS. We’ve got the master plan reporting there, which will have views about the stadium.
I mean, I don’t think you would go back in time and find a level of cooperation and investment in this city that you’re seeing now between the 2 levels of government, you just won’t find it. And we don’t apologise for that, because that’s what we’re here to do. You know, I came into federal politics because we got a rough deal from the federal government when I was in ACT politics, and now we’ve got a role to change that. And you can see from the investments that we have.
Journalist:
Just talking about the Bruce stadium development that it is, it’s not funded, I suppose. Can you talk about that, that pipeline? How will that work? When will it be funded?
Gallagher:
So we’ve got some work to do with the ACT government on that. They’ve taken a decision that Bruce is the area that they would like to redevelop for a stadium. The Raiders have an idea about how they would like to redevelop the stadium. We funded in last year’s Budget a master plan of that precinct, the Bruce precinct, which, as you know, before you finalise major projects, you usually do have a master plan in place that sort of says this is how we’re going to use going to use the land. This is where everyone agrees things should go. That will report in July, and so that work will be on my desk in the next little while. I would expect in the next couple of months, we will have that master plan, and we will be able to engage formally with the ACT Government on that matter.
Journalist:
I also noticed that all the other capital cities had a city deal. Why was Canberra left off that list?
Gallagher:
Originally when the city deals were being done? I can’t answer for former governments, but what we’ve taken here is the decision to work through the Infrastructure Minister, but also through Infrastructure Australia, about investing in projects where they stack up, where there’s a business case. And so you’ll see in some of the decisions we’ve already taken, including on the big infrastructure project around national security, we’ve done that work and then made the necessary investments.
Journalist:
Do you think it needs a city deal? Or do you think we’re fine with our work.
Gallagher:
Well, I don’t know. You know, there were city deals done that didn’t deliver very much, in all honesty, they were a former government’s approach, and our approach has been to work with the ACT Government here, we’re a very small city, to work with the ACT Government on the priorities they have and align them with ours. And that has proven in the last couple of years that I’ve been in this job to be the best way to deal with some of the issues, long standing issues in Canberra.
Journalist:
Modest growth to public sector, the public sector workforce. Are we setting ourselves up for future pain down the track, when numbers need to be trimmed back?
Gallagher:
Well, if you look in the Budget papers, you’ll see that if you’re comparing it to population growth, the APS is actually more efficient and smaller than it was back in 2006 so it hasn’t grown at the pace of population, but we have asked the public service to do a lot more like the NDIS didn’t exist back then. You know, the national security issues we’re facing weren’t the same back then, the Climate Change Department and the energy transition weren’t the same back then. And so we’ve been able to grow the public service.
I’ve been saying for some time I think it’s at about the right level now, ons and offs in different departments, but largely I think the public service is the right size, and you’ll see movement across departments, but we would expect it to remain that way. That’s my view, we’ve shifted away from using external labor. There’s more conversions from contractors to permanent public servants in this Budget. There’s the additional funding for Services Australia. There’s more resources going into Defence. So across the board, you can see that our commitment to the APS and the role it plays here in the ACT, and I think that’s under‑reported, that the engine room of our economy is the APS, and this Budget protects it.
Journalist:
With the APS, we’re seeing more roles move out to other capital cities with the all roles flexible approach from the APS. So can you continue to rely on that argument that it’s an investment in Canberra when we’re seeing it start to move elsewhere?
Gallagher:
Well I don’t think it’s fair to say that. I mean, it’s largely the same size, 65 per cent outside the ACT, 35 per cent in the ACT, that hasn’t changed dramatically either way. I think we will always be about that size in the ACT, it is our biggest employer. It generates a lot of the private sector activity that comes off the work in the public sector, including in defence, which is an area that’s growing. I think we should be proud of that, you know, I think that’s an amazing thing for this city to have that kind of anchor employment here that allows all of the diversity to happen across the economy. I wouldn’t see that changing.
Yes, there’s flexible work, but arrangements that are in place we think that’s good too. You know, there’s more people working from the regions. It means we’re attracting talent that might not have otherwise worked in the public service. We’re in the we’re in the global competition for talent, for labour, like any other employer, and if you’re able to offer flexibility, which includes supporting Canberrans to work flexibility, I think that’s a good thing.
Journalist:
Home Affairs and the NDIA both took big hits to staffing. What’s happening in those agencies?
Gallagher:
So some of that will be just programs, terminating, finishing, work wrapping up. I mean, there’s other ons that go on to into those agencies as well, but we’ve worked through the ASL in conjunction with individual ministers about what the appropriation or what the staffing level needs to be. And you see the balance of that in the Budget papers.
Journalist:
Ministeron the RSPCA, $30 million in this Budget. It was given $40 million in the ACT Budget. That seems to be a lot for basically a new shed. Is there something we don’t know about the material?
Gallagher:
Well, it won’t be a new shed. It will be best practice in shelter for animals. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been out to the RSPCA, I have. It’s in a terrible state of affairs. It’s a terrible workplace. It’s not appropriate for animals to be cared for in any way, shape or form. But the important thing about that project, too, and it’s going out at Pialligo, is that the cost overall is in the order of, I think, $68 million. This allows for that project to be funded entirely, and then they can focus their fundraising efforts on the other nicer things to have at that facility. The other thing it does is, for the ACT Government, is it releases that land in that part of Weston in Weston Creek, which we would expect, you know, subject to the ACT government going through all their proposals, potentially being used for additional housing.
Journalist:
One of the big infrastructure spends was the $50 million for Drake Brockman Drive, why that road? And when will we expect to see the development there?
Gallagher:
Yeah, so for Drake Brockman Drive, in Andrew’s patch. So that will be priorities from the ACT Government. I mean, they have a list, and it’s an ongoing list, it gets added to all the time of road upgrades that they need to happen and that meet the tests for the Commonwealth infrastructure. So really, again, pleased with that investment.
Leigh:
Katy, can I say one thing on Drake Brockman? One of the things you see with the Drake Brockman Drive development is that opens up access to the new Ginninderry development as part of our commitment to getting more houses for more Canberrans, the Drake Brockman Drive duplication really allows more opportunities for that important housing development, putting downward pressure on housing prices in the ACT for people looking to buy their first home.
Journalist:
Just for each of the members as well. Can I get you know one? Can I ask each of you, what is the what’s the one thing that you’re proud of in this Budget? What’s the one thing that’s going to deliver for your seat specifically?
Leigh:
For me it’s Drake Brockman Drive, $50 million investing and opening up opportunities, reducing commuting time and improving productivity. We’re a government that’s passionate about productivity, and that includes productivity right here in the capital.
Payne:
Honestly, it is hard to pick one, but I did highlight before the youth homelessness measure, and I might have a go at articulating it a bit more articulately. So it is around the difference between young people receiving Youth Allowance and other people seeking social housing receiving a pension, and that Youth Allowance being lower than the pension. And therefore the social housing provider receives less if they take on a young resident, and that has meant that they haven’t been able to make that model work and offer those places. So this will make a big difference to social housing providers in Canberra to help our young people to move into housing.
And recently, I attended an event with the with Barnardos in Dickson, and heard about the difference that that housing project was making for young people, but still so many needing to get into that housing. So our government’s looking at investing in housing across the board. Including the $50 million that we’re giving the ACT to help build the roads and the drainage and all of that that needs to be there for new housing and, of course, the tax reform. But this is something very specific to young homeless people. And I think, I know that Canberrans care deeply about homelessness and want to see it. You know, people in our city having a roof over their heads.
Smith:
And I mentioned it before, but the funding, the ongoing funding, into health care. So making the funding for the Urgent Care Medicare clinic in Phillip, which is working so well, permanent. We’re soon to see 2 fully bulk-billed clinics open in Bean, probably the second – second half of the year. The $500 million which has gone into our public hospital system, and all those additional investments into cheaper medicines for all Canberrans.
Gallagher:
And if I can add one thing that I haven’t touched on, that I’ve just recalled, we were asked by the National Jewish Memorial Centre to support them with the total improvement and upgrade to their facility just down in Forrest, and that’s been funded in this Budget to a total of $3.1 million, which allow them to make that facility more secure and enhance its operations.
Journalist:
And just one more for you, Katy, as well. What do you, I guess, say to other people who who are saying that the ACT is not a winner when it comes to, I suppose, infrastructure in this Budget?
Gallagher:
I’ve tried to answer that in the sense of, if you look through the billions of dollars that we have invested in Canberra, you look at it budget on budget, you will see how much we have invested in the city, quite rightly, and it’s because Canberra didn’t get a fair deal under the former government at all. It was ignored and neglected and damaged in many ways. Go back and have a think about the half a billion dollars we put into the national institutions when we came to government. They’ve come back at different times, $200 million for a new roof at the art gallery. All of that every single time we have taken those on board and funded them. And that’s our dual role as the nation’s capital, but it also supports our Canberra community as well, and we will continue to take this approach where there’s a good project, where the Commonwealth has a role in it, we will fund it, and we will fight for Canberra at the cabinet table.
Journalist:
Just on Services Australia. You’ve had to keep topping up funding for staffing since 2023. The Budget papers state that you’ll keep an eye on the resourcing depending on myGov. Can you talk a bit more about that? Is the idea that that will mean the agency requires less staff in the long run?
Gallagher:
So what we wanted to do there is, I mean, this is a big increase that had occurred in 2023, and it was because Services Australia weren’t able to meet the good outcomes for customers. That’s what drove those original decisions. And so we did a piece of work. We gave them additional resources. They’ve been able to bring those times down so people are getting access to payments. They’re not waiting on the phone as long. We’ve been able to shift more to online work. We’ve done a whole range of things, but there’s an ongoing need to make sure we continue to deliver those outcomes.
But at the same time, we are using more technology, whether it be myGov, and improving myGov, to make sure work can be managed there. And I think people want that too. They don’t want to wait on the phone for 45 minutes if they can log into myGov and sort out their problem or get a call back. So we’re trying to make the service more efficient, and just as an exercise in fiscal discipline, we want to make sure that we’re not baking in staffing numbers, where we’re driving workflow efficiencies as well. So what we’ve said to Services Australia is we continue to work with you. There’s improvements to myGov funded in this Budget, and then we will reassess the ongoing resourcing levels, because this is over and above what they were operating at post‑pandemic. And we want to make sure that their resourcing is adequate year by year. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.