New government spending will be highly targeted as escalating costs puts even more pressure on the ACT budget, Chief Minister Andrew Barr has revealed. Jasper Lindell reports more than $80 million will be cut from the ACT public service over four years, but the government says it will be achieved without hurting services. It was, Jasper writes, a budget that was light on election sweeteners.
As always, people will want to know how the budget affects them. Brittney Levinson breaks down where rates are going up the most, while Lucy Arundell hit the streets to find out how Canberra families rated the job.
There's plenty more budget reading to be had today. But in other local news, the government wants the CIT to tell it what it's doing to recover money spent during an investigation into the $8.5m "complexity and systems thinker" contracts. Lucy Bladen reports a judge's decision on an injunction bid to block an integrity commission report into the affair remains suppressed for fear it would "let the genie out of the bottle".
A bit of cloud cover kept the temperatures just in the positive overnight. Today should reach 14 with a slight chance of rain.
