Shadow Treasurer Ed Cocks has expressed skepticism about whether the ACT Government will deliver the monetary gains it’s promised. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Canberrans have been promised they’ll see a $500-$600 million improvement to the ACT Government’s bottom line when the 2025-26 Budget Review is announced next week.
That’s according to the ACT Government, and the same figures were quoted by Finance Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith when she appeared on ABC Radio on Wednesday (28 January).
But Shadow Treasurer Ed Cocks doesn’t believe this will be possible, accusing the minister of attempting to manufacture a win.
“This seems like a desperate attempt to spin an abysmal failure into an achievement,” he said.
“Despite their promises of surpluses that never materialise, Labor has spent well over a decade sending the ACT backwards with year after year of deficits. The Finance Minister’s claims of a miracle turnaround are just not credible.”
He pointed to revelations the ACT Greens and Canberra Liberals have been discussing a potential power-sharing agreement to oust ACT Labor as a reason why the party might be “trying to spin its way out of trouble”.
The ACT 2024-25 Budget Review did receive a big hit after it was revealed the health budget would need to accommodate a $227.3 million blowout.
An ACT Auditor-General report warned the Territory faced “significant fiscal challenges”, pointing out 9 per cent of the ACT’s total budget was expected to go to annual interest payments (a total of $1 billion) by 2028-29.
“Careful management of expenditure and borrowing will be critical to maintaining financial sustainability over the long term,” the report noted.
The Territory recorded a net operating deficit of $1.5 billion in 2024-25, exceeding the Budget forecast by $497 million (a 133 per cent increase since 2020-21).
Mr Cocks said the Auditor-General’s report validated the Opposition’s concerns.
“Labor has had sole control of the Treasury portfolio for 24 years and things just keep getting worse,” he said.
“Meanwhile a raft of Labor election promises are still unfunded, credit agencies and financial commentators are warning of the risk of further credit rating downgrades, and Canberrans are being left with multigenerational debt.”
The ACT Government and Opposition produce differing numbers when it comes to debt: Canberra Liberals use the UPF (uniform presentation framework) measure while the ACT Government uses HNOB (headline net operating balance).
The government has long argued its adopted method is more accurate as it takes into account financial gains in the superannuation provision account.
The result is the Canberra Liberals have argued the net debt for 2025-26 was forecast to be $14.9 billion, while the ACT Government documents state it’s around $11 billion.
An ACT Government spokesperson said the forecast $500-$600 million improvement to the Budget’s bottom line (from the previous year) would be evident in next week’s budget review.
“Mr Cocks unfortunately has again demonstrated a lack of understanding of public finances,” they said.
“While still in deficit, the government is making practical expenditure savings without deep cuts to public services with a return to surplus over the forward estimates, consistent with the forecasts in the Budget last year.
“The budget review will show a sensible stable budget with a limited number of new measures that respond to changing demands on government.”
