Page 1149 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 August 1989
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matters that that consultative committee presumably will be assisting her to resolve.
I can assume only that the Chief Minister feels she is on very shaky ground with her budget and feels compelled to defend herself against some of the comments that have been made, not only by me, as Leader of the Opposition, and my colleague Mr Collaery, but also by many members of the community, many representatives of organisations of all kinds out there, who are making it clear to the Chief Minister that her version of the budget, as presented for discussion, is not acceptable to them.
Hence, I can conclude only that she has taken this opportunity today to try to assure the public that this consultative process is indeed a consultative process and that indeed their comments will be listened to. But I will wait with great interest, Mr Speaker, until the end of September when the budget is finally brought down, to see just how, if at all, it does change from the document that was presented to us for discussion in the first place.
The Chief Minister traversed such matters as independent audit of assets and public debt, superannuation and the Audit Act. It is fascinating, since the Audit Act, as she acknowledged, has been referred to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for review. Why, then, does the Minister raise the question in the context of a budget debate, particularly one that is supposed to have to do with the effects of the Commonwealth budget? Why does she intend to anticipate debate that will take place when the opposition members of this house demand that an external audit of assets and public debt be carried out? I use the word "demand" advisedly, because it will be a decision of this Assembly that the Government, kicking and screaming, will conduct such an audit. Superannuation is a wide-ranging subject that has not been raised in the context of the budget debate, but we were subjected to a 10-minute talk on superannuation.
Mr Speaker, I would like now to get back to the subject which I thought this debate was about, and that is the effects of the Federal budget on the ACT, because it does have some very significant effects on us, despite the Chief Minister's assertion that it does not. To begin, Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister has stated - she stated it before and she stated it again today - that the Federal budget "is a responsible and fair response to national economic conditions" and will not require the ACT Government to make any changes to the initial statement already issued for the ACT budget. That is a very confident statement, Mr Speaker, but wrong. Rosemary is wrong again.
That assertion by the Chief Minister really warrants some reflection, because either it indicates that she is totally inflexible in terms of her budget and will not change it despite the facade, the charade, of community consultation that is taking place, or perhaps she simply does not
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