Chief Minister Andrew Barr will see out the term, at least. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The Chief Minister’s hands-off approach and low visibility this term have prompted inevitable speculation that he is easing his way out of the chair, but Andrew Barr insists he is not going anywhere.
One year into his fourth term as Chief Minister, Mr Barr’s admittedly new approach to governing has critics saying he is missing in action and driving social media comments that he has moved to Melbourne or has bought property there.
Speaking after the sod turning ceremony for the UNSW Canberra City campus project, Mr Barr says Melbourne is a nice place to visit, but he has no intention of living there.
“I do have some friends in Melbourne and I do go to Melbourne for short breaks two or three times a year, but that is the extent,” he says.
“I don’t want to live in Melbourne. It’s a nice place to visit, but no, if I could put to bed that rumour, together with I think several others, I do live all the time in the ACT, I don’t have any other property, and I am focused on the job I was elected to do.”
Mr Barr says he remains committed to seeing out this term as Chief Minister, short of a health issue or other crisis, but he has given his senior ministers a freer rein this term in preparation for when he does decide to move on.
That and the time-consuming public service reorganisation have meant he has had less of a media presence in the past year.
Governing in a minority for the first time in years has also been a challenge.
“This is the first time for anyone in the government other than me, governing in a minority without another partner,” Mr Barr says.
“So, necessarily a lot of this first year has been around putting in place the necessary cabinets and governments and machinery of government structures to support the implementation of the agenda and governing as a minority government.
“We’ve had a lot of turnover, particularly in the senior public service, a lot of new people coming in, and so there is obviously a lot of that work, and that’s the principal job of the Chief Minister.”
Mr Barr says it’s not a one-person government and he has confidence in his colleagues’ ability to speak in their portfolio areas.
A convenient consequence for him of that is that they are the ones feeling the heat in the many problem areas afflicting the government, particularly the parlous state of the budget and spending issues in health and education.
Mr Barr says the ACT is no different from every other state and territory when it comes to budget worries, except mining and GST-blessed Western Australia.
“The idea that the ACT is the only subnational government in Australia experiencing these difficulties is not fair,” he says.
But when pushed, Mr Barr blames the other parties and the media for the government’s inability to rein in spending and having to focus on raising more revenue.
“There’s no appetite in this parliament for significant expenditure restraint,” he says.
“There’s no appetite in the media for that either. Almost every day, the Canberra media is filled with a story about needing to spend more on something.
“So we have to obviously disappoint people that we can’t spend more on everything all of the time, and we need to grow revenue faster than expenditure.”
Mr Barr says part of the answer is growing the economy and increasing jobs, so more payroll tax is available, as will happen with UNSW Canberra’s expansion.
But the ACT needs more Commonwealth funding for health and a greater share of GST, which he hopes will happen over the remaining three years of the term.
To those who say the ACT is building infrastructure it can’t afford at the expense of basic services, Mr Barr says that delaying these necessary projects only means paying even more for them.
“You can stop the infrastructure program, but that will just mean that the infrastructure that needs to be built will be delayed and will cost more to build in the future and potentially be more disruptive at that point in time,” he says.
“The projects that we’re pursuing are ones that have been talked about in some instances for decades. They’re not things that have been dreamt up; they’ve been part of a long-term infrastructure plan.”
Would he stick around for another term to see through some of these projects?
That’s a decision to be made late in this term, but if Mr Barr does go, he is not about to retire from public life.
“I’m 52, I will be 55 at the next election, so I think there are plenty of people in politics who, aged 55, are still running for parliament,” he says.
“I’m not about to retire and just disappear. I’ve got a job to do, and I’m focused on that.”
