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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Lucy Bladen

Suburbs to share in $100m cash splash if Liberals win election

The Canberra Liberals have promised to spend $100 million on upgrades to ACT suburbs if they win next year's territory election.

Every suburb would receive a slice of the pie with the money to be handed out based on the number of households in a suburb.

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the policy was about reinvesting Canberrans' rates back into their neighbourhoods.

"We know that after 20 years of Labor and the Greens the suburbs have been long neglected and this is a policy that will benefit every single Canberran," she said.

"Canberrans take pride in where they live and they really value the suburbs and the neighbourhoods where they live."

It's the first major election commitment from the Canberra Liberals with a dollar figure and does not involve scrapping a project or overturning laws.

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee. Picture by Karleen Minney

Residents will be able to have a say on what projects they would like for their suburbs and a website has been set up for people to provide feedback on the projects they would like done.

While the money will be handed out based on the number of households, a suburb would receive a minimum of $500,000 and the cap would be $2 million.

Ms Lee said a dedicated project team would be developed to assess and make decisions on what projects would go ahead.

The funding would go towards projects such as playgrounds, community facilities, communal spaces and waterway upgrades. It would be in addition to city services such as mowing and fixing cracks in the footpath.

"This policy is about projects that will benefit the local residents, the local communities and the local environment," Ms Lee said.

"The choice is firmly in the hands of the local community. We know that each suburb is unique and it's the people who live there that know what that community needs."

Ms Lee said about 70 per cent of inquiries the opposition receives from constituents is about issues in their suburb.

"We want to make sure that our suburbs get the care and attention that they deserve," she said.

The money could go towards projects such as improvements to playgrounds. Picture by Elesa Kurtz

Ms Lee is set to outline the Canberra Liberals' priorities in a speech to party faithful on Monday.

"We believe firmly that health, education, housing, community safety and basic local services are the bread and butter of local government and that's where the focus should be," she told The Canberra Times.

The Canberra Liberals' first major election commitment, announced last year, was they would cancel the second stage of light rail to Woden.

The Liberals have repeatedly said that by cutting the project the party would be able to reinvest the money earmarked into other areas such as health and education.

The government has yet to release costs for the project but the Liberals have estimated the cost of the project to be more than $3 billion.

The Liberals have also said they would overturn the territory's drug decriminalisation laws and will hold a royal commission into the territory's health system.

The Opposition Leader has been critical over the levels of debt in the ACT. Ms Lee did not provide any firm indication about what the Liberals would do if they won power to reduce debt.

"Like with any government we will make sure that we go through a budget process," she said.

But Ms Lee took aim at the government's procurement processes and infrastructure delays, suggesting she believed savings could be found there.

"We've also raised significant concern about the various dodgy contracts and procurement processes that this government has undertaken," she said.

"If we make sure that infrastructure projects are actually completed on time then you probably wouldn't have what we see today including the $200 million blowout for the Canberra Hospital expansion project.

"It is about making sure that we have good governance, a lot of accountability and most importantly ministerial responsibility which is sorely lacking from this Labor-Greens government."

The Canberra Liberals promised to freeze residential rates at the 2020 election if they were elected. Rates in the nation's capital have been rising as part of the Barr government's 20-year plan to replace revenue from stamp duty with rates.

Ms Lee said the Liberals would release their rates policy closer to the 2024 poll.

"We will be releasing our rates policy closer to the election but what we have firmly indicated and demonstrated with this policy is that we believe that the rates Canberrans are paying should go back into being invested into their suburbs," she said.

"And that's the direction we want to take it so we will have more to say on a rates policy as we get closer to the next election."

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