Page 421 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 June 1989
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Mr Speaker, this responsibility brings with it a clear need to ensure that we in the Territory are prudent managers of the funds that we are given to deal with.
However, in closing, Mr Speaker - and I said I would be brief - I note the need for prudent management of the funds that are provided, but it is important that we do not just cut for cutting's sake. It is very important that any cuts we make are able to be sustained and do not reduce the types of services that the people of the ACT need and deserve, the types of services that the people of the ACT expect when they pay their rates and other taxes and charges. I implore the Government when looking at this particular matter, when seeking to make appropriate changes to the budget and appropriate sacrifices in certain areas, to take this matter clearly into consideration.
MR DUBY (3.58): Mr Speaker, I am reassured to hear the comments by Mr Jensen that the Residents Rally does not regard the Supply Bill as simply the forerunner of the Appropriation Bills and the budget and that the comments made were not simply those of a shopping list, as Mr Wood suggested, in relation to the expenditures that they wanted to have brought about in the coming budget. Like every other group here, my party recognises that the Supply Bill is simply the housekeeping work required to enable funding for the Government until such time as the Appropriation Bills can be brought down.
I am pleased to note that the Government has said there will be extensive consultation prior to bringing forward the Appropriation Bills and that we will have ample opportunity to have input into that so that we can work very hard at having the appropriate steps taken to ensure that the programs that are dear to our hearts perhaps do receive funding then.
Like Mr Kaine, I was concerned in relation to the fact that the Supply Bill was for six months rather than the more traditional five, especially when the Government has announced that it is going to bring down a budget in September anyway. I figure it possibly thought, "Better safe than sorry", in terms of the delay that may occur in a house of this nature in getting the budget papers through. If there is a lot of consultation, and I can only assume there will be, I cannot see the need for that prudence.
Nevertheless, on that basis I simply say that this Bill will be supported by my party, as it will be by all the other parties in the house. We look forward to the budget Bills to do the full work of allocating expenditure in this Territory in the next financial year.
MS FOLLETT (Treasurer) (4.00), in reply: I thank all of the members who have spoken in the debate on the Supply Bill 1989-90 for their contribution to the debate and especially for their assurance that they will not delay or obstruct this Bill. As a number of speakers have said, it
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