Page 1654 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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Commonwealth political and bureaucratic financial wizards, and I make no personal reflection in that remark upon the under treasurer of the ACT and his excellent and cooperative staff. "Cut the services provided", they say, "but don't dare touch the bureaucracies controlling those services". The Grants Commission did not separate out the service provision costs from total health and education budgets and it did not conclude that overspending was isolated to schools and health facilities. I repeat, Mr Speaker, that only this Government, with some of its roots and power located firmly in a public service accustomed to a once-upon-a-time golden age of public spending, could react to the exigencies of reduced spending by insulating almost totally the ACT bureaucracies from any real cuts.
It is among other things a bureaucratic budget fashioned for the approval of ACT's bureaucrats, at political direction. As a result, the budget leaves the Rally with a more than sneaking suspicion that it is ultimately mechanistic and inhumane. Even where it appears to strive for a little humanity there are serious problems.
Before 11 May this year the Rally discussed with the ALP the possibility of forming a joint working arrangement. High on the list of the expressed joint concerns were the social justice initiatives we could jointly take in government. Perhaps it was no more than an early flush of enthusiasm on the part of the Labor candidates before they were given their factional instructions. I might add, Mr Speaker, whatever happened, they are a long way from their plans now and that must be evident to all in the ACT.
This budget is therefore a profound disappointment to the Rally. Social justice has been emasculated by finding it a niche within the bureaucracy. The Chief Minister's Department now has a social policy position. This is all well and good, but social policy imperatives exist already and are easy to identify. Women's health, mental health, youth homelessness, the absence of a proper regime of equal opportunity, privacy and antidiscrimination legislation are only some examples. There is no need for bureaucratic appointments and hierarchies to prod the social conscience which should already be there in this Government.
There are plenty of sources of information if the Government needs them. One of the most lucid documents we have seen in recent times is a community based response to a report to the ACT Housing Trust on the development of a youth accommodation program. In that report, youth workers themselves had pointed out that the ACT is the only State or territory without a central coordinating body for youth affairs; that is a significant problem to be addressed. So is the area of providing medium- to long-term supported accommodation, and so is the development, above all, of integrated programs for homeless young people who are drug or alcohol affected.
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