Page 629 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 July 1989
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public finances must operate within a known and guaranteed set of financial arrangements between the Commonwealth and the Australian Capital Territory.
That point, Mr Speaker, remains to be negotiated. Although we have self-government, there is no known and guaranteed set of financial arrangements.
Fourthly, that the newly elected ACT government should have as long a transition period following the granting of self-government during which Commonwealth financial support will be guaranteed at an agreed base level in real terms, and having regard for population increases to ensure fiscal stability.
If I may comment on that point, Mr Speaker, we had an agreement in real terms which has already been abrogated by the Commonwealth, but that agreement, as I understand it, made no provision for increasing population. In other words, we have been tied to the 1987-88 level, and even if the population were to double overnight, there would be no increased input from the Commonwealth. That matter still remains as a principle to be negotiated.
The fifth point is that:
The Commonwealth Grants Commission must be available to conduct regular reviews of the ACT financing at the request of the ACT Government.
Those principles were valid when they were written down by the Liberal Party some months ago, they remain valid today, I believe that they are valid, irrespective of which party is in office in this Territory, and they provide a basis for further negotiation and debate with the Commonwealth. That debate must take place. Without it we are like a ship at sea in a storm without a rudder. We have nothing to guide us, we have no claim that we can make on the Commonwealth. It has virtually given us no undertaking on any of those matters. Indeed, on the one matter on which it did give us an undertaking, which was an input in real dollar terms, it has already backed away and taken $23m out of this year's budget and put it into a trust account. There is a great deal on the financial aspect on self-government that yet remains to be done.
It is worth noting that our budget is now, I submit, in the coming year approaching $1.4 billion. That is a lot of money, it requires careful management, and it requires the Commonwealth to take its part, having regard to my earlier point that this remains the seat of government in the national capital. It is something that we cannot ignore in talking about standards of services that will be provided and maintaining what most Canberrans would like to see maintained, that is the amenity of the Canberra that exists today. Part of that stems from Commonwealth standards that have been determined long before self-government in the ACT. But we are obliged, as custodians of this Territory,
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