- ACT Public Service expands: will add 291 full-time jobs in 2015-16 after faster-than-expected growth of 567 jobs this year.
- Canberra employment expected to grow by 0.75 per cent next year.
- Andrew Barr suggests ACT is "owed" $158 million in federal aid due to job cuts.
- New computer operating system for ACT public servants, allowing more telecommuting and use of tablets.
The number of Canberrans with a job has fallen for two consecutive years but the ACT Treasury is confident the worst of times has past.
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And the capital has at least one unlikely source to thank for its salvation: cashed-up, retrenched public servants, whose spending helped prop up the local economy.
While Canberra's biggest employer, the federal bureaucracy, is unlikely to hire many new recruits in the coming year, Tuesday's budget papers show the ACT Public Service will grow in 2015-16, adding about 300 staff.
Treasurer Andrew Barr summed up the city's economic prospects as "better than last year".
"The Commonwealth has stopped kicking us but has certainly left us badly bruised by the side of the road," he said.
"[Last month's] federal budget stopped the harsh cuts to the federal public service but it didn't do anything particularly to help the Canberra economy."
The ACT labour market, dominated by the public sector, is expected to expand in 2015-16, albeit slowly.
Employment is forecast to grow by 0.75 per cent, after contractions of 0.25 per cent this financial year and 0.2 per cent the previous year.
The ACT government, which employs almost 20,000 full-time-equivalent staff, will again expand, adding an estimated 291 full-time jobs in 2015-16. This follows faster-than-anticipated growth in 2014-15, when it employed an extra 567 full-time staff.
The bigger surprise is that the ACT economy grew at a not-too-sluggish pace, despite the steepest federal government job cuts in 15 years and more people leaving Canberra than arriving.
State final demand rose 3.5 per cent (2.25 per cent in real terms) in 2014-15, and is expected to grow 4.75 per cent (2.75 per cent) in 2015-16.The Treasury says one reason for the result was the Abbott government's "front-loading of job cuts in the [Australian Public Service], with redundancy packages adding to Commonwealth government expenditure on wages and salaries".
"With job cuts expected to be minimal in 2015-16, together with continued fiscal restraint, Commonwealth government consumption is expected to grow at a lesser pace in 2015-16."
Mr Barr also used the budget to remind the Abbott government it had provided no material support to the ACT despite cutting thousands of jobs.Canberra lost 5378 APS staff in the 18 months to December 31, 2014.
"By comparison, the Commonwealth government has provided direct support to the industries or other regions impacted by significant change," the budget paper says.
"In response to the loss of approximately 6600 direct jobs at Ford, Holden and Toyota, the ... government committed approximately $140 million in assistance programs.
"The closure of Blue Scope in Illawarra also attracted support of $20 million for 1000 direct job losses. On average, this is equivalent to approximately $20,000 in Commonwealth funding per direct job loss."
The ACT government says that, if Canberrans had been treated on similar terms, the local economy would have been boosted by an injection of $158 million in federal aid.
Overall, the budget papers say the ACT economy "remains resilient" but acknowledge this may change in coming years.
Among those risks are low pay rises for federal public servants, who are presently engaged in protracted wage negotiations with their employers.
"Although the Commonwealth job cuts appear to have abated, the ACT economic growth forecasts face the risk of lower-than-expected Commonwealth government spending," the papers say.
"A further risk is Commonwealth government wage restraint, which will affect income and associated household spending growth in the territory."
