Liberals accuse ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher of scaremongering on health figures

But Ms Gallagher stood by the figures crunched by the ACT government that claim the federal government will cut its payments to the territory by $47 million from July.

A spokesman for federal Health Minister Peter Dutton said the Chief Minister should explain to people in the ACT why there was such a disparity between the figures she quoted and the numbers in the budget.

"According to official figures in the 2014-15 budget, funding for ACT hospitals will grow $52 million over the next three years, from $276.2 million to $328.2 million," he said.

But Ms Gallagher estimates about $240 million will be ripped out of health funding over the forward estimates.

"The cuts we're seeing in this budget will mean that we have to look at every other part of health expenditure. It's the largest part of our budget. A cut of $47 million [from July] or $240 million over the forward estimates is going to be a real challenge to our budget," she said.

"We're not flowing that onto the health system at this point in time because we can't have those cuts hit our health system on July 1. There's simply no way to adjust, but longer term, if this remains unresolved, new services will be off the table and we will actually be looking at what we have to cut."

Ms Gallagher said the ACT health system would not be able to absorb the budget cuts longer term.

Liberal senator Zed Seselja called on Ms Gallagher to be honest with Canberrans about the level of health funding for the ACT in the federal budget, saying the territory would in fact receive $43.8 million more than expected in funding this financial year, followed by $3.8 million in 2014-15.

He said funding changes were the result of the deal she signed with the former Labor government and her "failure to reach agreed health targets".

"The Chief Minister needs to spend her energy advocating on behalf of Canberrans, rather than scaremongering with alleged figures based on agreements she signed the territory up to," he said.

"The Chief Minister has actually neglected the fact that there is actually a very large windfall this financial year over and above what was expected. She's either trying to make excuses for signing a very bad deal on behalf of Canberrans and/or not reaching the targets that the hospitals had set for them.

"We know there have been serious problems with the outcomes in our health system under the leadership of Katy Gallagher, both as health minister and as chief minister, and she obviously, I think, through playing the figures and through holding back a lot of facts, is trying to blame the federal government for the shortcomings of her government."

ACT Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson was also sceptical of the figures released by the government on Wednesday.

"Some of the agreements Katy Gallagher was talking about were ceasing under Labor anyway – the millions for the subacute funding – and the reason some of the other funding has decreased is because of population numbers, population forecasts changing and also because Katy Gallagher's hospitals are not performing," he said.

"There is an amount of money being provided to other jurisdictions because their health system is performing well and meeting targets and they get reward funding. In the ACT, we are not meeting targets and not getting that funding. I don't think it's as clear cut as Katy Gallagher is trying to make it out."

Mr Hanson said it was a reality that the ACT was facing "financial fiscal restraint" and he used the opportunity to call on Ms Gallagher to abandon plans for light rail.

"I don't think that it's viable for her to be raising concerns about funding for the delivery of core services if she's going to continue with light rail, and that's why I'm really saying we must stop light rail now before any more money is expended," he said.

Ms Gallagher is set to meet Prime Minister Tony Abbott early next month.

"I'm not even sure he is aware of these decisions,'' she said. ''They're hard to find in the budget papers – they're hidden in a way because they're hidden in lines like changes to indexation or removal of the funding guarantee.

"It doesn't look painful but when you actually flow it through our own numbers, it actually equates to this massive cut to our health funding from the Commonwealth."

Ms Gallagher said she would stand up and fight for the rights of Canberrans when she meets with Mr Abbott.

"I fought to get the meeting in the first place, so it'll be a continuation of that. We've got nothing to lose as a city – we've been savaged on the job front, we've lost funding from the Commonwealth for key services, we've had no new big infrastructure spend, so I'm not certain there's a lot more that can be done to this city,'' she said.

''So nothing to lose and a lot to gain, and we'll go in with Canberrans first and foremost.''

Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Simon Corbell said Mr Hanson should take up the federal government's health and education budgets cuts rather than attacking infrastructure projects which would generate jobs and stimulate the ACT economy.

“Jeremy Hanson shows a lack of vision and direction with his attack on light rail,” Mr Corbell said on Thursday.

“Instead of trying to derail a project that will help grow the ACT economy the opposition leader should join with his state and territory Liberal Party colleagues in taking up the fight to the federal Coalition government that is imposing unprecedented cuts to state and territory health and education funding.

“So instead of giving in to his federal counterparts and laying down as they cost shift with unfair budget cuts to health and education, Jeremy Hanson should show some leadership and fight for the ACT.”