Page 1649 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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than the status quo. I predict that it will even equivocate on what to do with the Royal Canberra Hospital, which is only a fraction of the health delivery problem.
On the revenue side of the budget, greater attention needs to be given to expanding the revenue base by encouraging development and diversifying the sources of revenue in the ACT. The Commonwealth Government is no longer the big spender in the ACT, and one only needs to look at its capital works budget for this year to verify that.
A diverse and effective private sector in the ACT is absolutely necessary if we are to maintain our standard of living and provide job opportunities for all ACT citizens and an expanding revenue base. The budget makes only token contributions to this in terms of encouraging growth. On the other hand, the Government aims to collect an additional $40m plus in taxes and charges from those same businesses - a major disincentive to business confidence and growth. For example, land tax is an impost which the business community has to carry. The amount collected from this tax in 1988-89 was $6.9m; we now learn from the budget that the expected 1989-90 collection from this source will be $12.9m, almost double the 1988-89 figure - some incentive to development of the private sector!
Mr Speaker, Labor governments have traditionally been high taxing, big spending governments. The ACT Labor Government seems to be no different in this regard. It is not prepared to make real expenditure reduction decisions but prefers instead to introduce higher taxes and charges on selected areas of the community with the greatest impact on the business sector. It is not prepared to take the hard decisions to eliminate excessive administrative costs, nor is it prepared to remove restrictive work practices.
The Treasurer has not taken firm control of the bureaucracy; she has chosen to avoid decisions rather than make them. She has taken the ostrich approach, burying her head in the sand in the hope that our budgetary problems will go away. Well, they will not. The confidence and the ability of the Follett-led Labor Government to identify and address the real economic and financial problems must be seriously questioned.
In her budget speech the Treasurer said that her Government must ensure that a sharp adjustment is not forced upon the ACT as we move towards State-type funding, and to this end the Treasurer has taken a $10m first step towards reducing the overfunding identified by the Grants Commission. This, of course, would leave the balance of the Commonwealth overfunding, perhaps over $100m a year, to be corrected next year. A very sharp adjustment will then need to take place, I would suggest.
The Treasurer has not shown any determination to make the necessary decisions for preparation for the withdrawal of overfunding by the Commonwealth. The community is now
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