Page 1658 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
perhaps in the interests of some sections of the union movement to keep money coming in for construction work at whatever cost to the rest of the community. Or do we simply have a misguided knee-jerk response which says that because Canberra has ridden on the back of the construction industry in the past it should continue to do so without bothering to diversify our economic base?
We have our answers and I believe, Mr Speaker, that the voters of Canberra will draw their own conclusions. This budget's priorities make it very clear that on the agenda for Canberra is a city full of buildings - neatly kerbed, guttered and landscaped areas where people cannot afford to live and cannot get jobs because they cannot get the education in the first place. "Never mind", Mr Whalan will tell us, "let the unemployed, the homeless, the sick who cannot get treatment and the kids who cannot get into schools hitchhike out to the Bruce Stadium and fill their bellies on the satisfaction of another tax-sponsored victory".
We also have to condemn the lack of detail in much of the capital works program. We heard of the capital works program earlier in this week, a fact that seems little more than arrogance on the Government's part, especially relating to several items which the PDI Committee specifically requested the Government to review before it committed funds as it has done in this Appropriation Bill.
Indeed, in one of the budget papers there is an increased allocation up to $6m in the community development fund for construction works, an allocation which was not put to the PDI Committee for review in the alleged consultation process. The Rally cannot accept the slavish manner in which the Government has adopted a number of items in the construction vote. We will be demanding much more input on several matters during the course of the Estimates Committee, of that I can assure the Government.
Of even greater significance is the reliance the Government has had on what seem like rubbery figures in the overall construction vote while a very precise and surgical approach has been taken to social welfare and justice cuts. This budget is, at its heart, not a budget for the people but a budget for Mr Whalan. It transparently serves his political interests and advances his idiosyncratic view of Canberra's future.
The pity of it is that, when this budget founders, not only will it threaten the security of many in our community but Ms Follett will, sadly, be saddled with the blame. We cannot help Ms Follett escape that fate if it arrives. The choice was hers to be persuaded by her deputy and we are on record as saying that we would not oppose the budget. We will not.
The Rally is committed to guaranteeing the welfare and serving the interests of the whole community. We do not
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .