The ACT Government cut public-sector employment and increased petrol taxes, and spent the proceeds on social justice for the poorest in the community in the Budget brought down yesterday.
In Education, 90 jobs will go, 80 of them school-based. The bulk of the cuts will be in the colleges, where Ms Follett says the diversity of courses and small classes give more opportunity for cuts.
Petrol will go up by half a cent a litre through an increase in the fuel franchise fee. It will raise $1 million a year.
The Treasurer and Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, announced in the Budget speech the immediate setting up of the Voluntary Separation Scheme. It provides $17 million for redundancies, twice that of last year. Unlike usual public-sector redundancy schemes, redundancy packages will not be available to all who volunteer.
Unions responded with immediate lodgments of disputes with the Industrial Relations Commission.
The ACTION subsidy will be cut by $4.25 million to $44.6 million. This is an 8 per cent cut, compared to 2 per cent for other agencies. But an extra $8.4 million will be spent on new buses and $3m on new automated ticketing.
In all, the ACT goes from a practically balanced Budget last year to a deficit in 1993-94 of $77 million. Expenditure is up 4 per cent to $1.360 billion. Receipts are down 1 per cent to $1.283 billion. The deficit will be made up of $34 million in borrowings and $43 million in reserves and provisions saved from previous years.
In effect, the Budget has done nothing to address the cut in receipts from the Commonwealth, the ACT Government prefering to increase the deficit by almost exactly the $78 million it has lost from the Commonwealth. Borrowings in the next three years will average $57 million each year.
The Opposition branded it as a “”gutless budget”.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kate Carnell, said Ms Follett had failed to make any of the tough decisions needed to revitalise the ACT’s economy.
The Opposition condemned the petrol-price increases saying 54.1 per cent of its price was tax.
On redundancies Ms Follett said there was an unavoidable need to make “”substaintial running-costs reductions”.
“”We know that there are many staff who would welcome an opportunity to start a new career or to retire,” she said. “”sq(But) to ensure that the ACT Government Services does not lose essential or required skills or abilities . . . some who seek to leave will be refused.”
At a press conference she said there was no target figure and there would no compulsory redundancies.
However, at between $30,000 and $40,000 a package the $17 million would translate into between 425 and 550, which is between 2.5 and 4 per cent of the ACT Government Service workforce.
On petrol, Ms Follett, said, “”The Government is taking immediate action to reduce Canberra’s petrol prices by encouraging independents into the local market.”
Negotiations were under way which would shortly result in an independent operator in the ACT, which is a present dominated by oil-company-tied operators.
She said that keeping franchise fees below NSW had not resulted in lower ACT petrol prices, so the ACT would protect its revenue base by bringing its fees into line with NSW.
The Budget provided for a continuation of across-the-board cuts in all agencies (except tourism) of 2 per cent for each of three years within departments. Ms Follett hopes this will save $5.2 million this financial year. Last year, however, only half of agencies met the target.
“”The Government is determined that it will not be too tough on the people of Canberra,” she said. “”Rather, we have been tough on the cost of Government.”
Taking out the capital account, recurrent expenditure has gone up less than the CPI and revenue has gone up 6.1 per cent over last year.
There are a dozen social-justice initiatives: a Jobskills program and a Youth Joblink program to provide about 250 jobs; $16 million worth of concessions for people with health cards and welfare recipients on electricity, gas and rates deferment; a half-way house for women; a shelter for homeless men near the city centre; a $2.5 million “”Aboriginal keeping place and cultural centre”; an after-hours crisis service for people with mental dysfunction; a program “”to integrate children with special needs into mainstream schools”; a schools program to promote awareness of Aboriginal culture and languages; and a program to enable low-income earners to more easily buy government houses.
Ms Foleltt said the ACT would seek compensation from the Commonwealth for forgone car-registration fees from diplomats. Registration concessions for farmers and the clergy would be stopped.
Capital works spending is down $20 million to $196 million, of which $94.9 million is for new projects, all previously announced, such $12.4 million for Lanyon High School and $6.9 million for Palmerston Primary and Pre-school. The rest is for continuing works. The Budget provides for $6 million for preliminary design work for Gungahlin High School, Nicholls Primary and Pre-school, relocating lower Jindalee Nursing Home and refurbishing the city police station.
There were no funds set aside for the Museum of Australia.
ACT Electricity and Water will pay an extra $5 million in dividend to the ACT Government. In planning, design-and-siting regulatory fees for extenstions and new buildings will double and betterment tax receipts will fall by $1.25 million
Indepdendents Michael Moore and Helen Szuty condemned the education cuts saying greater class sizes would affect children’s education.
Mr Moore said the Government was “”still operating Budgets on priorities that were set in the 1980s by Federal public servants”.
Ms Szuty condemned health and education cuts when there was a $12.8 million surplus on the recurrent Budget.