Page 1689 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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such as the compulsory motorcycle rider training scheme, but then it has given no thought to increasing the usage of bicycle helmets. There are some new initiatives, but these are sometimes ill-conceived or they are overshadowed by the initiatives that should have been introduced but have not.
Importantly, in the area of business, there is no overall policy plan, while for employment there is no new initiative that seeks to amend the favourable employment situation in the ACT at the moment. The budget typifies the attitude in the Labor ranks, that businesses will look after themselves even if we hit them with huge increases in taxes. The ACT Labor Government has done little to cut its own spending. Labor has not bothered to tackle the hard decisions, which means that the ACT will either sink into a future of public debt or allow proper decisions to be taken by a Government that does understand the ACT and its community.
MR MOORE (5.42): Mr Speaker, what I have done is that I have taken this document, the Australian Labor Party's Policies for a Fairer Canberra, and I have taken these budget documents, and I have compared them. Before I start on that, let me mention something about the consultation process that this Government is so proud of. I quote from a press release from the ACT Parents and Citizens Council.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Moore, please stand on your feet while you are addressing the Assembly.
Mr Moore: Would you prefer me to be behind my desk?
MR SPEAKER: Yes. It certainly is where you are supposed to be. I am looking at whether you should be there or not, but I think you should be there.
MR MOORE: The press release states:
Whilst the Council supports the concept of the budget consultative process, it believes that such a process is a cynical exercise unless Government is responsive in substantial ways to the arguments put to it during the process.
The Government's response indicates that it was a cynical exercise. Who loses out of the budget? The ordinary people. What else is lost? Morale, particularly in the areas that I am most concerned with - education and health. We see a $600,000 rebate to education and a $400,000 rebate to health.
Let me turn to the Policies for a Fairer Canberra, the Labor Party platform. In all their guffawing and criticism of the Rally recently, at least we were sticking to our policies and the mandate that we had when we went to an election. It would have been appropriate for this Government to try to implement some of its policies about education through this budget. The document says it has:
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