Page 1414 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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clearly defined national purpose. They included the National Convention Centre and other significant parcels of land, primarily of Territory rather than national concern. The ACT Government considers that national land should be restricted to that clearly required for national purposes or to be used for those purposes in the immediate future.
These problems have been compounded by the draft national capital plan, which seeks to give the National Capital Planning Authority, a Commonwealth agency, responsibility for planning over large tracts of urban land nominally under the control of the ACT Government. My Government believes that the national plan should set down whatever requirements are appropriate to reflect the national character of these areas but leave control over planning to the ACT Government. This issue not only affects the face of Canberra but has economic and financial consequences as well.
The ACT Government will work hard with the Commonwealth to ensure that Canberra can grow, with the same high standard of services we now enjoy. The Commonwealth Government needs to recognise, as we do, that the approach to planning for future growth must produce options for development that will allow this to be achieved within the ACT's resource constraints.
Many of the assets that the ACT has inherited from the Commonwealth are run down or will impose additional costs on the ACT in the future. The Commonwealth must bear its fair share of responsibility for the problems now passed to the ACT. I have raised with the Prime Minister such matters as the rundown state of the public hospital system, outstanding work on ACT dams and the backlog of road maintenance.
The ACT Government accepts that it will have to pay on the same basis as other Australians for the normal range of State and municipal services enjoyed by its citizens. The Commonwealth Grants Commission has been in place for more than 50 years to ensure that fair play exists between all States and territories on this issue. If we as a community want better services than other Australians, we shall have to be prepared to pay more for them.
The self-government legislation has established a framework for the ACT to be treated on a State-like basis by the Commonwealth, with full regard to the need for close, continuing cooperation between the Commonwealth and the ACT, given Canberra's position as the national capital. We will cooperate fully with the Commonwealth Government to deal with the wide range of issues we must both address. The Commonwealth Government must respond to our reasonable requests in a fair and forthright way.
I now outline the Government's budget strategy. In the context of the prevailing and forecast economic and financial environment, it is the Government's role to
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