Health and education unions say calls by Canberra's business lobby to slash spending on the city's public schools and hospitals are ''outrageous.''
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The unions representing the ACT's public school teachers and nurses say the ACT Chamber of Commerce is wrong in its assertions that schools are overstaffed and hospitals are too expensive.
On Monday, chamber chief executive Andrew Blyth called for spending to be slashed on Canberra's public services and for the controversial light-rail project to be ''put on ice'' until the cost of the city's bus system had been reined in.
Australian Education Union ACT secretary Glenn Fowler took issue with Mr Blyth's comments about ''funding largesse''.
''The term 'largesse' is outrageous and I encourage anybody who is using words like that to go into a public school and see if they can point to areas of excess or luxury or waste,'' he said.
''The ACT system has a relatively high level of investment. That's historical; nobody should apologise
for that or be embarrassed by that. It has paid off in student results that lead the country.
''We're a highly educated city and why would we want to wind that back?''
Productivity Commission figures to be published on Tuesday show the ACT had Australia's second-highest level of per-child funding in its public school system in 2011-2012; $20,800 each child versus a national average of $15,800.
Mr Fowler said more spending, not less, was needed. ''He [Mr Blyth] talks about productivity and what better investment than having a highly educated and highly skilled population,'' Mr Fowler said.
Australian Nursing Federation ACT secretary Jenny Miragaya said she, too, was dismayed by the chamber's attitude, saying the territory's health system faced challenges not shared by other jurisdictions.
''Canberra is small jurisdiction with one major tertiary hospital,'' Ms Miragaya said. ''It is the tertiary centre for not just the ACT but for the south-east [NSW] region.
''It doesn't have the ability that bigger jurisdictions have, to specialise in particular things.
''I think they have problems with economies of scale, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the quality of the services that are there,'' Ms Miragaya said.
''I really don't know how you could trim costs because of the depth and breadth of services that are required.
''Twenty-five to 30 per cent of patients in ACT public hospitals at any one time are from NSW, so we are providing a lot of services.''
