There were scant new dollars for Canberra in the federal budget for those living or working outside the parliamentary triangle.
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While Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff can look forward to a brand new Australian embassy replacing the "dilapidated" one in Washington DC at a cost of $236.9 million over the next seven years, the preservation of ageing and heritage-listed Government House in Canberra and Admiralty House in Sydney will have to share in $7.9 million over the next four years to keep up essential maintenance.
Overall Commonwealth GST funding for the ACT is expected to be $1.857 billion in 2015-16, down from $1.918 billion in 2014-15.
The budget papers pointed to job losses throughout national institutions across the city flowing from previous budgets, but the National Gallery of Australia has been singled out for "Smaller Government" cost-cutting. The gallery will need to save $400,000 over the next four years through extending outsourcing of its security and guarding functions.
The government will invest $4.8 million over the next two years allowing the Department of Finance to sell four office blocks in the city. All revenue from the sale will go to "repair the budget and fund policy priorities". While the budget papers withheld any indication of how much the sale of these properties might return to Commonwealth coffers for "commercial confidentiality" reasons, a scoping study will go ahead.
The properties are East Block, West Block, Anzac Park East and Anzac Park West.
"The government will also continue to review Commonwealth property leases in the ACT to ensure surplus vacant office space is filled by agencies with similar requirements and upcoming lease expiry dates," the budget said.
Parliament House and its workforce appeared the largest winners, with the government earmarking $112.2 million over five years to go to the four parliamentary departments (the Senate, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Budget Office and Parliamentary Services) and the Department of Finance for critical capital works and some recurrent funding. The capital works will seek to address "critical failures and long term under investment identified in the building condition assessment report for Parliament House, commissioned in the last budget."
A further $12.9 million over four years will go towards upgrading information technology security for Parliamentarians.
The Department of Finance will install more secure networking equipment amid concerns around email and communications privacy. It will also provide additional capability for secure wireless infrastructure in electorate offices and Commonwealth parliamentary offices connecting to the parliamentary computing network.
The Australian War Memorial was also a relative winner - scoring $12.7 million over the next seven years to compile a six-volume Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq (2003-11) and Afghanistan (2001-14) and a one-volume Official History of Australian Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor (1999-2012) for publication by July 2022.
Technology upgrades, as previously announced, will take place at the Australian Bureau of Statistics to "enhance its core capacity".
The bureau will undergo a business transformation program at a cost of $234.7 million over five years, with $85.2 million of that in capital works.
The government hopes to achieve savings of $26 million a year from 2020-21 as a result of the statistical infrastructure upgrade.
Meanwhile, the agency that helped guide Canberra through its Mr Fluffy asbestos crisis appears safe from the chopping block.
There were fears the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency may have been abolished through last year's mid-year economic outlook revisions. But the budget papers confirmed the agency was receiving increased staff. It is due to receive an addition three staff in 2015-16 on top of its existing nine staff.
Agency head Peter Tighe was instrumental in informing the ACT Asbestos Response Taskforce of the need for a buy back and demolition scheme with his declaration that no Mr Fluffy home was safe to live in and all 1021 homes should be demolished.
Funding has been rolled out for the continuation of roadworks in the ACT with $6.9 million to go to Majura Park's carriage road linking the Federal Highway with the Monaro Highway.
A further $300,000 will go towards previously announced ramp metering on the Tuggeranong Parkway while $3.2 million will go to a National Highway Upgrade constructing two truck lay-bys on the Federal Highway near the NSW border.
