Page 1673 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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South buildings will cost $10m. That may seem a trifle extravagant, I would suggest, in the light of teachers' jobs being cut. I noticed that my colleague Mr Moore, in fact, raised the issue with Mr Whalan this afternoon and he responded, I would suggest, in a slightly jocular manner.
Mr Speaker, we could go much further in looking at individual items in the budget, but it is, after all, a Labor budget, and a Labor Government will have to live with the disapproval of the electorate. For our part, we will continue to ask searching questions in the Estimates Committee and the other important committees in this house.
I see that I have a few moments left, so I will briefly comment on one particular aspect that is very important to the Rally. In fact, Mr Speaker, we noted the comments by the Liberal leader, Mr Kaine, about the figures on page 19 of budget paper No. 2 regarding the severe downturn in retailing in Canberra compared to the rest of Australia. The Rally shares these concerns. If one examines our own policies for business, one sees there is a clear understanding of the problems associated with small business in this particular city.
One of the major concerns of small business is the degree of the slope, if you like, towards the shopping centre managers and building managers and owners, away from these hard-working, small operators, many of whom operate family businesses and are the backbone of the private sector, particularly in the tourist industry.
The proposal by the Rally to have this matter considered by a select committee was the fulfilment of a promise to these many family businesses to give all sides of the business sector an opportunity to operate on a level playing field. We acknowledge, Mr Speaker, that many of their problems are related to high interest rates, which are beyond the control of business. They are related to the problems of the Federal Government, which is slowly squeezing the people of Australia. However, following on from the problems of small business, Mr Speaker, the Rally notes the commitment - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Your time has expired, Mr Jensen.
MR STEFANIAK (4.48): I will confine my comments, Mr Speaker, to a number of specific areas. There are certain aspects of the budget which are indeed positive and other aspects which certainly are not. I will deal with a couple of points raised by Mr Kaine and perhaps elaborate on them. I share the comments raised by other speakers here today in relation to this budget.
Mr Kaine referred to easy, trendy issues, and there are a number of points in the budget where moneys are to be spent in forming certain units, certain sections, certain groups of people, which I think could be quite adequately handled by public servants already in place. There are some areas
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