ACT debt is $11 billion and rising. HUGH SELBY is calling for a debt management and reduction summit that would ask experienced, likely former, federal public servants to share the wisdom our Treasury officials are not permitted to utter.

“To tough it out” was a phrase of admiration. It meant courage, endurance, commitment.

Not anymore. It now means to cling to power or a position when any responsible occupant would leave.

In the UK, PM Keir Starmer will tough it out, when a leader respecting their party and voters would quit.

He had a resounding mandate to govern, meaning to recognise and solve problems, and to take initiatives that would give Brits, Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish reason to be optimistic and proud. He has squandered all of it.

But while Starmer inherited a mess, our chief minister came to power with a Territory budget that was well managed. Not anymore, and not for a long time.

It’s quite common for the people outside Canberra to refer to our government as just a misnamed local council. One can see why. 

The Brisbane City Council looks after more than twice our ACT population. It has a debt of $3.5 billion; however, it has an active debt reduction strategy in place. We don’t. Our debt is over $11 billion and rising. 

But it doesn’t matter to our megadebtor because the next election is 2.5 years away. Oodles of time to travel abroad at our expense, “toughing it out” in style. No doubt to be followed with a cushy, federal “job for the boyo”.

Meantime, his government will not admit its investment folly in last century’s public transport technology. It will tough it out, admitting nothing, discussing nothing, no matter how tough that makes it for everyone else.

Their mentality is, “To Woden or bust”. The reality is that the tracks will reach Woden eventually and we are already bust because of the cost of this steel-and-concrete snakeway from Gungahlin to the bridge over the lake. 

All of which means that while we didn’t create this mess we, Canberra residents, have to find the way to fix it. 

The ACT population will reach a half million this year. Over a quarter of us were born overseas and our median age, at 35, is less than the rest of the country.

We have the lowest unemployment rate. Our median personal income (some three years ago) was $18,000 better than the national figure.

Blessed with short distances to travel, good incomes, national and territory work forces with a high component of tertiary qualified employees, multicultural perspectives and educational opportunities, we could, with just a little effort, be national leaders in so many fields.

We have three universities, chock full of brains with the capacity to analyse and solve problems.

Opportunities are there for those who look, who ask, who listen.

There is a way to find a solution

Debt management and innovation must co-exist. But how to set them up? 

The Liberals, along with the Greens and the independents, should be running forums, online, and in community spaces to draw out the expertise in our community for problem solving and innovation.

This is not a new idea, but with today’s technology we can do it so much better than in the early ’50s when President Eisenhower did it, or in the ’80s when Prime Minister Hawke did the same.

The costs might be met by industry, professional, or corporate sponsors, or crowd funding.

A debt management and reduction summit would call upon experienced, likely former, federal public servants to share the wisdom that our local Treasury officials are not permitted to utter.

To that would be added the experiences of Brisbane City Council and private sector input on how to turn around an insolvent entity.

An innovation summit would present the experiences and predictions of local successful innovators. It could ask our university administrators to share what they are doing to encourage innovations by their staff and students. To that might be added input from venture capitalists about what they are looking for in today’s economy.

Managing debt and innovation means rethinking what our “council” should manage and what should be left to others.

There is a precedent. Policing is contacted out to the AFP, which is a federal organisation.

Our health and education systems are used, naturally, by NSW residents. How about we reduce bureaucratic doubling up and integrate both health and education into the NSW system?

In the criminal justice space the endemic problems with the adult and youth jails won’t go away for so long as we have a system that benefits lacklustre management and undertrained staff, but offers no rehabilitation.

The solution is to contract out corrective services to NSW. Their daily cost per prisoner, with rehabilitation, is much lower than ours.

The problems with our Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions reflect the lack of meaningful career opportunities. It’s time to import a deputy director of the NSW or Commonwealth ODPP as our director for a fixed term (between two and four years) and establish transfer and training pathways for prosecutors among these three ODPPs – Commonwealth, NSW and ACT.

We’re drowning in debt. There are some tough decisions that must be made. Let’s ensure that they are evidence based, reflect community input, and accepted as being in our collective self-interest.

Do that and we’ll have a government terrified of electoral defeat: tough!

Hugh Selby is a former barrister and CityNews legal affairs columnist.