City Services Minister Chris Steel and Chief Minister Andrew Barr have revealed a tough budget for 2025-26. Photo: Clare Fenwicke.
It’s ACT Budget week and it’s a tough one this year.
Treasurer Chris Steel announced a raft of new taxes and charges, intended to bring the government back into the black while keeping services afloat and attempting to do something about housing, health and other critical (and often long-running) issues.
Regardless of your opinion of their management skills, the ACT government is cash-strapped and pretty much always will be, no matter who is running it. The revenue base is small and many of the numbers will never add up.
But often, our expectation seems to be that government will fix everything. Everything that’s wrong is their fault, every need should be met by them – but without raising our taxes or charges.
“The government ought to do something about it”, goes the refrain in the comments section.
From time to time, people say to me “if you can raise enough money for a really strong community foundation, aren’t you letting government off the hook? It’s their job to fix our problems, isn’t it?”.
The answer is no – looking after the community is a responsibility that belongs to us all. Government is elected to represent our interests and to provide services, not to run our lives. While we tax income at relatively high levels, overall Australia’s tax to GDP rate is low by comparison with the rest of the OECD.
Unlike Scandinavian countries, Australians aren’t comfortable with high-taxing regimes that provide expensive but comprehensive social services. Unlike the US, we do expect the state to ensure there’s a safety net for the most vulnerable.
Together we form a social compact – essentially (in the words of the ACT Government itself), “community, business and government working together to deliver integrated responses that benefit all Canberrans”.
Honestly, we’re too small to have many other options. A wealthy community with high expectations is served by a chronically underfunded government with a budget smaller than some Sydney regions.
But there are many advantages to stepping up together as a community.
When we rely on government alone, we’re also tethered by its agenda and the high bar of expenditure required to satisfy Treasury bean counters. Private money can be faster and more flexible, government provides the heft and capacity.
In Queensland, the new Office of Social Impact was founded and funded by government and private money, a collaboration begun by philanthropist Allan English AM and the Queensland treasurer David Janetzki to explore exactly these opportunities.
The Office will drive the development of for-purpose and social enterprises across the state, looking for impact investing in collaboration with sector leaders, social entrepreneurs, philanthropic funders and investors.
The expectation is this will also help foster innovation and economic growth. Grants are just the start. The bigger, better outcome is when the community comes together to build skills, create jobs and fix underlying social issues, not just provide financial bandaids for the short term.
This week Hands Across Canberra, the Snow Foundation and the John James Foundation announced almost $2 million in grants, meeting need across the Canberra community from social inclusion to disability and poverty.
The funding is the highest total ever given away but it won’t touch the sides of all the need in the city – we had applications for $12 million worth of projects, all worthy and wanted by the not for profit sector.
Government has an obligation to each and every one of these people too, but none of us can do it alone. Charity can’t meet the need alone and government can’t either.
Instead we need to recognise partnerships across our small community and collaborate to create a better and fairer Canberra.
Genevieve Jacobs is the CEO of Hands Across Canberra.
