Unedifying contest holds cold comfort for Canberrans

An aerial view of Canberra from Belconnen. Despite an increase in population and a huge amount of building, Canberra’s financial record is poor. Picture: iStock

This weekend the ACT faces an election. There are 149 candidates vying for five jurisdictions.

There is a distinct possibility that we could have a chaotic result: a government dominated by independents or, just as bad, one dominated by the Greens. The general feeling is that Labor is on the nose and the Liberals are hopeless.

Whatever the result, most Australians tend to ignore the political shenanigans of the ACT – “It’s only Canberra” – but to do that is shortsighted. The ACT, for better or worse, is a template for the future of society and government in Australia. What is more, if you think the territory is simply a bit of land around Canberra city and its government is a trumped-up city council, think again.

The ACT has grown in area and population to the point that it has almost the same population as the state of Tasmania – it even has a similarly complicated electoral system. Canberra has the youngest, richest and best educated population in the country, but if you visited Canberra 10 years ago and thought it a smug, sheltered haven, you might be surprised to visit now.

The city has expanded hugely, especially to the north, and the ethnic and social mix likewise has expanded. However, despite an increase in population and a huge amount of building, especially of high and medium-density units, and transport infrastructure development under the current government, Canberra’s financial record is poor.

We have the highest rates and taxes of any jurisdiction in Australia. Canberra rates have tripled across the past five years and the services have not improved to justify this. Indeed, there has been a general decline in services, especially in health. Combine this with crippling energy bills and a threatened cut in the supply of gas that is mostly used for heating, and even blind Freddy can see the Barr Labor-Greens government is in a precarious position.

Labor governments have been in power in Canberra for a total of 28 years, almost as long as self-government, but even the previous Labor chief minister, Jon Stanhope, says Andrew Barr’s government is hopeless, although under Stanhope I frequently referred to Canberra as “Nohoperstan”, especially after the fires of 2003.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr speaks at the ACT Labor Campaign launch in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Stanhope says Barr’s government has been a string of failures.

First, Barr as Chief Minister and Treasurer hasn’t managed the budget. In a long article in the local press, Stanhope laid into him: “The unbroken string of 12 deficits delivered by Andrew Barr as Treasurer is not only a record for any Australian jurisdiction but also for a single treasurer … The net debt to revenue ratio is forecast to increase to 128 per cent.” The consequence of this mismanagement is that Canberra is “relative to its taxing capacity, the highest taxing jurisdiction in the country”. Not only have rates, the principal source of revenue, tripled but land tax also has increased, at 10 per cent a year.

People reading this from other parts of Australia where the cost-of-living crisis is biting may be tempted to say: “So what, Canberra is rich.” Think again. Not everyone is rich and there are a lot of young families with children in Canberra. The cost-of-living squeeze is affecting Canberrans too. Despite a generally well-off population, the cost of living in Canberra has always been high and is now higher.

Added to rates, an important part of household expenditure is energy bills, especially in winter. In central and southern Canberra most people have gas heating, as we were encouraged 20 years ago because it was then the cheapest, but my current gas bill for the main winter period this year was $1500. This is not unusual. But don’t worry because if the Greens or Labor get back in we won’t have a gas bill because we won’t have any gas. They have pledged to cut it off.

We also have a roof festooned with solar panels, as do most people in the ACT, and it is compulsory for new builds. However, lately we have been having short blackouts. Why? Too much electricity going into the grid.

But squeezing householders didn’t stop the Barr government from spending a fortune on a tram line from the expanding north to the centre of Canberra that can’t even get over the lake.

To pay for this and the ever tightening vice of debt, the government has tried to expand the rate-paying population with a whole lot of quickly built flats that look more like old eastern Europe or China than the Australian capital.

Even more serious is the state of Canberra hospital, which is one of the main areas where everyday reality rubs up against ideology and the glamorous pamphlets we receive every few months from the current dear leader telling us what great services we have. There simply is not enough staff at the hospital. The emergency department is a notorious black hole. A group of cardiologists even has written an open letter complaining about the state of the hospital.

It should be remembered that Canberra’s hospitals service an area that extends into the far south coast. Nevertheless, although the government can’t manage one hospital, it didn’t stop it from taking over another one. Calvary hospital, a Catholic public hospital, was subsumed into the ACT health system despite widespread opposition.

However, despite the government’s failures, there is little support for the Liberals, who might prove themselves even more inept financial managers than the incumbents. In a jurisdiction with huge debt and bad financial management the Liberals’ main policy is (drum roll) to build a huge new stadium in the middle of town. Go figure.