Whoever forms the next federal government will find it nearly impossible to walk away from commitments on health and education funding to fill budget holes, the ACT government believes.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says there's been such intense focus on these areas that the community would be justifiably outraged if promises are broken.
The federal election campaign was being fought around support for services the community deemed most essential, he said while handing down the ACT budget on Tuesday.
In particular, there had been strong commitments to health and education off the back of the Abbott government's cuts.
"It would be, particularly in the context for example of a minority federal government ... impossible for any government elected under those circumstances to walk away from the commitments they've made," Mr Barr told reporters.
"I think the people of Australia ... would be rightly outraged if they did so, given the extreme focus and attention in this election campaign and the lead up to it on that question of health and education funding."
But he noted the federal budget looked stuck in the red for the rest of the decade and growth alone wouldn't fill that gap.
"I have no doubt that whoever wins the federal election, they will still face challenging times with the commonwealth budget."
