Expert commentary on the 2024 ACT Election

ACT Election 2024: Aspiration versus cost of living? A new stadium or paying down debt?

With the ACT Elections to be held in October 2024, the major issues are shaping up to be providing infrastructure and services or reducing sky-rocketing debt. This morning I spoke with Georgia Stynes on Canberra Mornings, ABC Radio 666. I'm on from 33'55".

Territorians are currently paying about $1 million per day in interest fees to service government debt of some $8 billion. The territory's debt is expected to increase to some $16 billion by 2026. This will only make it more difficult for the ACT Government to deliver infrastructure without increasing rates and taxes.

The ACT is already the highest taxing state or territory government in Australia. Last year the territory lost its AAA credit rating.

The ACT Government committed to fully-funding its unfunded superannuation liability by 2030. In 2023, a capital injection of $347,908,000 was made to the Superannuation Provision Account to pay down the liability.

The ACT Government has announced Stage 2B of the light rail will be constructed between 2028-2033, and the construction of a new stadium will not commence until after 2030 when the super liability will be fully funded. The annual payments will then be diverted to the debt which is accumulating rapidly.

In the meantime, the Canberra Liberals are starting to look like an ACT Government, and the Barr Labor-Greens government has been in power since 2015, with Labor in power for two decades.

The 2024 ACT Election will come down to aspiration versus cost of living. While transport might be an issue, it is difficult to divorce the cost of servicing the ACT's large debt from any infrastructure spend.

Woke tropes informing Australia’s Gaza response

Families of Israeli hostages visit the Ohel Chabad (November 13, 2023)

ACT Senator David Pocock wrote about Australia’s response to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza recently. The next day, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong reinstated $6 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Staff at UNRWA had allegedly assisted Hamas in their brutal attacks on unsuspecting and innocent Israeli civilians. In response, the Australian government ‘paused’ funding to UNRWA. UNRWA’s response was to sack those allegedly involved, and after a period of seven weeks, the Australian government has decided to reinstate the funding.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Woke tropes informing Australia’s Gaza response.

Woke tropes informing Australia’s Gaza response
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ACT Senator David Pocock wrote about Australia’s response to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza recently. The next day, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong reinstated $6 million in funding to the United Nations Relief… pic.twitter.com/DekL4ymC7p

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) March 16, 2024

My Letter to Senator David Pocock re: Aid to Gaza

Senator David Pocock

On 14th March 2024, Senator David Pocock wrote an article in The Guardian, a left-leaning newspaper, about Australia's role in the ongoing Gaza conflict perpetrated by the proscribed terrorist organisation, Hamas.

His article was entitled, 'The crisis in Gaza is a diplomatic test for Australia. We must do better as a country'.

I agree. We must ensure that Australian taxpayers' money does not go to an organisation that allegedly employed Hamas insiders who helped with the attack on innocent and unsuspecting Israelis on 7th October 2023.

Below is my email to Senator Pocock.

Dear Senator Pocock,

I note in your article in The Guardian on 14th March 2024 you state that you have received many emails from people in the ACT about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza created by the proscribed terrorist organisation, Hamas. You also state that Australians 'expect our government to show leadership and stand up for what is right'.

As an Australian who spent some 15 years of my life in service to my country, what is right is to ensure that terrorists are not funded by Australian taxpayers.

If you left the bubble of the ACT, a jurisdiction that is out of touch with the majority of taxpayers in Australia, you would know that what is right is to ensure the safety of the Australian people.

Your article in The Guardian is misguided. If the people who write to you are so concerned about what is happening in Gaza, perhaps you should direct them to RedR and the humanitarian roster they manage on behalf of DFAT. You might also consider that Australian taxpayers would be more comfortable sending medical supplies and related products to Gaza, rather than cash that has allegedly been used by UNRWA and its staff to support the proscribed terrorist organisation, Hamas.

If you truly support Territorians, you might also like to condemn the pro-terrorist and anti-colonial vandalism that was targeted at the Vietnam War Memorial and the Captain Cook Memorial this week. Without the sacrifice of Australian service personnel, your function and indeed your ability to write such partisan articles in a left-leaning newspaper would not exist.

I urge you to reconsider the importance of your position that has materialised as a result of the Australian electoral system. In this regard, you do not just represent the ACT. You have a responsibility to represent Australia's interests, not to how you and others feel about the tragedy that the Palestinian Authority's elected representatives perpetrated on 7th October 2023.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Michael de Percy.