The ACT will need to transition its infrastructure program back to a more normal level as the era of emergency spending and borrowing to get through the worst of COVID-induced economic crises comes to an end, the Chief Minister has said.
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Andrew Barr said a closer working relationship with the Commonwealth under a federal Labor government would also make it easier to jointly deliver large-scale infrastructure projects, and that he hoped to finalise an all-encompassing city deal for Canberra and the surrounding region.
The ACT government will commission a mid-way review and update of its 10-year infrastructure plan, which was released in 2019.
Mr Barr said the government was not looking to add any new large-scale infrastructure projects to the line-up of those already announced, which include the Canberra Hospital expansion, a Canberra Institute of Technology campus at Woden and an expanded Canberra Theatre Centre.
"We're now in a period of quite high inflation and so pouring in more money to the economy would just prolong that inflationary period, and we are alive to the constraints that our current infrastructure program is absolutely full and running at full pelt," he said.
"There's no idle resources sitting out there in the space of project managers, engineers, the construction workforce ... Everyone is full tilt at the moment."
Mr Barr said the next infrastructure plan update would see a smaller program of works over the next five years.
"What we'd be looking to do is to normalise the forward infrastructure program back to a more neutral setting, in terms of it not being seen as emergency or stimulatory, but a little bit more [that] this is the routine level of infrastructure spend you would anticipate a jurisdiction of our size to undertake," he said.
"Now there's the economic and fiscal constraints that dictate that particular direction, but there's also supply side issues in terms of availability of materials and labour to deliver projects."
Mr Barr told The Canberra Times he believed the infrastructure and other spending in the ACT had largely helped the territory get through the worst of COVID-induced economic downturns.
"During the worst of the pandemic we had a quarter of negative growth twice, they weren't consecutive, so we avoided a recession," he said.
The ACT budget, to be released on Tuesday, will include $820 million for health infrastructure including nearly $91 million for the Canberra Hospital campus.
The budget will fund design and fit-out work at a 64-bed inpatient unit; the design, costing and demolition of a new pathology building; design work for a new inpatient building; and demolition planning for Building 4.
The government will also fund upgrades to make navigating the hospital campus easier and planning work for the next stages to implement the hospital's master plan.
The budget will also fund a new hydrotherapy pool on the southside at Tuggeranong Lakeside Leisure Centre, which the government had committed to before the 2020 ACT election.
Improved discussions were also underway between the territory and the Commonwealth on the future of the Australian Institute of Sport campus and the CSIRO's former Ginninderra experiment station, Mr Barr said.
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"The direction [for the CSIRO site] is that rather than the Commonwealth holding a gun to the head of the territory, like [Zed] Seselja was proposing, we'll have a constructive discussion about how we can be involved with the Commonwealth in delivering a really good project that will provide a land source and potential location for some of the Commonwealth's housing commitments," he said.
Mr Barr said he would try to align the ACT's infrastructure agenda with the Commonwealth, including across energy grid upgrades, housing and a transition away from natural gas over the next 20 or so years.
"It's an entirely different working environment. The Commonwealth budget day will not involve surprise announcements of things we've never heard of that we'll be expected to provide half the funding for. I think that era of Commonwealth-territory relations is thankfully behind us and we're working very closely together on implementing the shared agenda for our city's infrastructure need," he said.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
