Tuggeranong emerged as the ACT's only winner from Tuesday's budget, with the Department of Social Services receiving $26.8 million towards a new office.

But a group of sleep-deprived southside mothers on their regular morning stroll the morning after the Treasurer outlined his fiscal blueprint raised concerns about announced changes to the family tax benefit, petrol excise, a levy on visits to the doctor and cuts to public service jobs.

As prams were pushed along the shores of Lake Tuggeranong, conversation revolved around how each young family would respond to the additional financial pressures.

Sally Baker, a Monash resident with a four-month-old child, said her family had already begun to prepare for the cost of the petrol tax, the GP levy, and the shedding of public service jobs in Canberra.

“Additional payments at the doctors are definitely an issue because I’ve already take my baby to the GP multiple times a week,” she said. “I’m most definitely concerned about cuts to the public service too as my husband is employed by the government.”

Verity Scarlett from Kambah said the budget would only add to the “sky high” price of living in Canberra.

“We’re already paying through the roof for everything else in Canberra, especially for childcare,” she said. “With petrol prices up too it’s just going to make it harder for mothers going back to work.”

Her friend Jemma Butler from Gilmore, mother to a four-month-old child, said changes within the public service were a concern for her household.

“My husband is a public servant with a cultural institution in Canberra,” she said. “He’s pretty confident with his job security but you’re not really ever safe, are you?”

Ms Butler said she understood why the government had moved to cut the family tax benefit, but said it would definitely affect her family in future years.

William Bhusian, walking with partner Le Chung and their newborn baby, said he was worried about the impact on the local economy.

“We’ve bought a property in Downer recently and we’re really concerned that the budget news might reduce the value of that property,” he said.

The lack of environmental commitments in the budget was “terrifying”, he said, although the petrol tax may have an unintended environmental impact.

But not all the parents out walking saw Mr Hockey's budget as all bad news.

Richardson's Kate Booth, who has a three-month-old baby with her engineer partner, said it didn’t worry her that she would have to pay extra for petrol and trips to the doctor.

“Cuts need to be made,” she said. “It just cracks me up when everyone whinges about all this stuff that’s been taken away because why should everything be provided to you in the first place?”