ACT Independent Senator David Pocock said Labor’s fourth federal budget has failed once again to deliver meaningful investment in the territory, despite the big promises made at the last election.

Senator Pocock described the budget as very bland, uninspiring and lacking in the investments people in Canberra have been waiting to see.

“After four federal Labor budgets we still don’t have funding for a new Convention Centre or Stadium in the nation’s capital we so desperately need,” Senator Pocock said.

“The old CSIRO site at Ginninderra still hasn’t been divested for new social and affordable housing and our historic housing debt remains unforgiven.  

“The Government has also ignored the advice of its independent expert committee and condemned people relying on income support payments to continue living below the poverty line by failing to increase the rate of these payments or Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

“All the ACT got out of this budget other than the funding I was able to negotiate is an extension to a specialist trauma‑informed sexual assault legal services pilot, an urgent care clinic and $50m for the Monaro Highway - a tiny fraction of the $17.1 billion in new national Infrastructure spending with other key roads in need of funding like Horse Park Drive and Drakeford Drive completely abandoned.

“Instead of the kind of structural reform we so desperately need, this budget offers energy bill bandaids and tax cut tinkering around the edges.”

The only areas of positive new investment are on things Senator Pocock has pushed the government on. These include allocating:

• $55m for Upper Murrumbidgee River Health
• $10m to the CSIRO for research into new Gene Drive technology
• Expanding eligibility for the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, consistent with the recommendations Senator Pocock put forward in his senate committee report
• $47.6m in more support for veterans to help speed up claims processing
• Partially addressing student debt with the 20% existing HECS/HELP debt reducton and a National Student Ombudsman but failing to reform Job Ready Graduates or change the timing of indexation on remainig debt
• Modest additional support for small business that falls short of what’s needed
• Supporting Build-to-Rent to get 80,000 new dwellings online with better protections for renters including 5 year tenancies and no-cause evictions
• Electrification accelerator projects funded through ARENA to get entire suburbs off gas and onto renewables through rooftop solar and home batteries

Senator Pocock said that while increased spending on health was very welcome, he remained concerned that measures like the tripling of bulk billing incentives would not even modestly increase bulk billing in the ACT or give Canberrans relief on gap fees.

While the Budget delivers temporary, non-means tested energy bill relief, Senator Pocock has also been pushing for large-scale support to help households and businesses get off gas and onto renewable energy with rooftop solar and home batteries.

Using modelling Senator Pocock commissioned from the PBO of the cost of electrifying an entire suburb in the ACT shows that the Government could have supported the electrification of some 600 suburbs with the funding it has spent on three rounds of energy bill relief.

“We know that getting households off gas and fully powered by renewable energy will save them thousands year on year, and this is the kind of long-term structural change we need.

“While the big news out of the budget was two very modest tax breaks for all working Australians, there was no move to properly address bracket creep or increase the taxation of gas companies and other multinationals. 

“Investments in Nature in this budget are also shamefully low, not even warranting a standalone government press release and just a single line in the Treasurer's speech. If our future on this planet isn’t worth investing in, I don’t know what is.”

While welcoming the Albanese Government's work to rebuild the APS and transition from contractors to permanent staff he did note some worrying changes to staffing levels in the Budget (Budget Paper 4), in particular between 2024-25 and 2025-26:

• 450 jobs being cut from the CSIRO
• 241 jobs being cut from the Department of Health 
• 144 jobs being cut from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
• 142 jobs being cut from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 
• 42 jobs being cut from the Office of the Special Investigator
• 31 jobs being cut from the Australian Human Rights Commission