a day ago
As federal parliament returns, here's what was promised to ACT residents in the election
Much of the federal election campaign in the ACT was focused on the Coalition's plan for cuts to the public service.
Now that Labor has been re-elected, what exactly is the party promising for Canberra over the next three years?
Parliament will resume next week, but the government's commitments will not require much in the way of legislation.
For the most part, it is money on the table, from new civic infrastructure to improved health services.
This is not necessarily an exhaustive list, but covers the main items announced in the lead-up to the election in May.
The big ticket promise — unveiled at Labor's campaign launch — was the money to build a new aquatic centre in Commonwealth Park, making way for a new national convention centre on the current Civic pool site.
Federal Labor has put up $100 million, about two thirds of which will go to the pool, with the remainder set aside for feasibility and design works on the convention centre.
That commitment has been matched by the territory government, after ACT Labor made it the centrepiece of its own campaign launch in September last year.
At the time, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he hoped the design work on the pool would be done by the end of 2026, with construction to commence shortly after.
Since the new pool has to be finished before the existing site can be freed up, a new convention centre could still be a while away.
The ACT's low bulk billing rate for GP visits was a key campaign issue, particularly when the Interchange Health Co-op went into administration.
Labor pledged $3.8 million to keep it afloat, alongside $10.5 million to attract new GPs to three new bulk billing practices.
The money for the ACT is on top of Labor's national commitments on Medicare, which it hopes will triple the number of fully bulk billing practices in Canberra.
But while the government's national target is for 90 per cent of GP visits to be bulk billed by 2030, the ACT is unlikely to hit that figure.
The party also responded to the potential closure of the Burrangiri Aged Care Respite Centre, by promising $10 million for more respite beds.
Yet that commitment has become slightly less urgent since the election, with confirmation Burrangiri will stay open for another two years.
Labor had also promised one of its 50 new Medicare urgent care clinics would be in Woden.
Before the campaign proper kicked off, the government announced it would "finish the NBN."
It pledged fibre-to-the-node connections for more than 600,000 premises by 2030, including about 97,000 in Canberra.
Labor also put $3.5 million on the table for seven new crisis accommodation dwellings in the ACT, for people fleeing domestic and family violence.
Later on, it offered localised commitments either side of the city: $1.5 million to upgrade Margaret Timpson Park at Belconnen; and just shy of $1 million to revitalise the Chisholm Cricket Oval.
