Page 2889 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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Proposed expenditures - Office of City Management -
Division 180.1, $77,105,300
MR DUBY (11.08): I move:
That the proposed expenditure under division 180.1 be reduced by $6,210,000.
Mr Speaker, I have circulated a motion through the house that the amount of expenditure in this item, in particular that relating to asbestos spending, be reduced by an amount of $6.21m. I wish to make it clear in moving this motion that in no way am I trying to stop the removal of asbestos from Canberra homes. The people who have asbestos in their properties are entitled to have it removed at government expense. The question that remains of course is: which Government?
We are aware that the Chief Minister has entered into negotiations with the Commonwealth Government over asbestos and the iniquitous charges that have been imposed upon the ACT Government and, through it, the citizens and ratepayers of the Territory. The Chief Minister has maintained that she is seeking to have the current arrangements, which I regard as iniquitous, changed. At the least it should go to a situation of 30 per cent Territory costs, 70 per cent Commonwealth. Of course it is our view that the costs should be 100 per cent Commonwealth, but that is neither here nor there.
What we are trying to say is that, if this is the position taken by the Chief Minister and this Government, then the amount of expenditure that is to be accrued in relation to asbestos this year, which is in the order of $16.3m in 1989-90, should be reduced. It is logical to me that, if the ACT Government is genuine in its attempts to impose this formula of 30 per cent Territory and 70 per cent Commonwealth, it should bite the bullet and say that the ACT expenditure on this matter will be 30 per cent of that figure. On this basis the Territory's share would be $4.8m.
I suppose I should start at the beginning. The expenditure proposed this year is $16.3m of which only $5.2m will be funded by the Commonwealth Government. This means that the ACT Government and the ACT ratepayers and taxpayers are meeting asbestos removal expenditure costs to the order of $11.1m. Mr Speaker, this is clearly not on a 30-70 per cent basis and is clearly an impost on the citizens of the ACT. I have no doubt that, should the ACT Government ever obtain an agreement with the Commonwealth, the money that has been spent will have gone like water under a bridge. Almost certainly the Commonwealth will say, "That's tough; we'll enter into new negotiations now from day one of this new agreement".
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