Page 2601 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Thursday, 16 November 1989
__________________________
MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
FEDERAL COALITION ECONOMIC AND TAX PACKAGE - IMPACT ON WELFARE SERVICES
Ministerial Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 25 October 1989, on motion by Mr Berry:
That the Assembly takes note of the following paper:
Federal Coalition economic and tax package - Impact on welfare services - Ministerial statement, 25 October 1989.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (10.31): On 25 October Mr Berry made the most extraordinary ministerial statement on the Federal coalition's economic action, to which I would like to respond now. Mr Berry had no idea, at the time of delivering his statement, of the substance of the economic action plan. He was just responding to media evaluations of it. If Mr Berry had actually read the document he would know that the coalition is in no way stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, as he implied. What we heard was a typical knee-jerk reaction from the left, based on an inadequate and inaccurate interpretation of the proposals. I will provide the Minister with a copy of the document so that he can read for himself what it actually says. I will give it to him later.
The Federal coalition's proposed economic package is a major step forward. It provides the most detailed and comprehensive tax and expenditure program ever presented by an opposition party, and that includes the present Labor Government when it was in opposition. It is an action plan for a more productive and fairer Australia. Unlike Mr Berry, we on this side of the house are in tune with the growing economic crisis which threatens the future living standards of all Australians, and this action plan is designed as an integrated attack on Australia's economic problems.
Mr Berry claimed that those who would lose out most would be families and that those to gain most would be large corporations. That is totally and absolutely untrue. The economic package has a focus on helping families. It acknowledges the real difficulties that families face in Australia, such as high interest rates on home mortgages, high inflation rates and a high cost of living caused very
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .