Labor’s fourth federal budget has failed once again to deliver meaningful investment in the territory, despite the big promises made at the last election, said ACT independent senator David Pocock.

Senator Pocock described the budget as “very bland, uninspiring and lacking in the investments” people in Canberra have been waiting to see.

“After four federal Labor budgets we still don’t have funding for a new convention centre or stadium in the nation’s capital we so desperately need,” he said.

“The old CSIRO site at Ginninderra still hasn’t been divested for new social and affordable housing and our historic housing debt remains unforgiven.

“The government has also ignored the advice of its independent expert committee and condemned people relying on income support payments to continue living below the poverty line by failing to increase the rate of these payments or Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

“All the ACT got out of this budget other than the funding I was able to negotiate is an extension to a specialist trauma‑informed sexual assault legal services pilot, an urgent care clinic and $50m for the Monaro Highway – a tiny fraction of the $17.1 billion in new national infrastructure spending with other key roads in need of funding like Horse Park Drive and Drakeford Drive completely abandoned.

“Instead of the kind of structural reform we so desperately need, this budget offers energy bill Band-Aids and tax-cut tinkering around the edges.”

The only areas of positive new investment are on things Senator Pocock said he has has pushed the government on. These include allocating:

• $55m for Upper Murrumbidgee River Health

• $10m to the CSIRO for research into new Gene Drive technology

• Expanding eligibility for the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, consistent with the recommendations Senator Pocock put forward in his senate committee report

• $47.6m in more support for veterans to help speed up claims processing

• Partially addressing student debt with the 20% existing HECS/HELP debt reducton and a National Student Ombudsman but failing to reform Job Ready Graduates or change the timing of indexation on remainig debt

• Modest additional support for small business that falls short of what’s needed

• Supporting Build-to-Rent to get 80,000 new dwellings online with better protections for renters including 5 year tenancies and no-cause evictions

• Electrification accelerator projects funded through ARENA to get entire suburbs off gas and onto renewables through rooftop solar and home batteries

While welcoming the Albanese government’s work to rebuild the APS and transition from contractors to permanent staff Senator Pocock flagged changes to staffing levels in the Budget (Budget Paper 4), in particular between 2024-25 and 2025-26:

• 450 jobs being cut from the CSIRO

• 241 jobs being cut from the Department of Health 

• 144 jobs being cut from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

• 142 jobs being cut from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 

• 42 jobs being cut from the Office of the Special Investigator

• 31 jobs being cut from the Australian Human Rights Commission