Page 2991 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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paltry $7m, which would not even cover a third of the running deficit on the ACTION bus service for the year, shows what a miserable ransom the Federal Government is prepared to pay to rescue its embattled minority in the ACT.
The Follett Government's rush in the last week to appoint advisory committees and present draft reports has created a pace for reform, and we should acknowledge that, but this should have been evident from the start, Mr Speaker. We were promised honest government. Then the Government broke its foremost election promise; it increased rates and charges and failed to explain how it could have alleged during the election campaign, when it fought so hard against us, that there would be a $30m surplus in the ACT budget.
The Chief Minister herself argued that the Assembly should not fund party political activities. She poured scorn on Dennis Stevenson, questioning whether he was using Assembly resources for his abolish agenda. Yet on 24 November 1989, the day after this no-confidence motion was moved, the Chief Minister used her Assembly letterhead to send a letter signed "Rosemary" to all party members. This letter, which called upon Labor Party members to deluge the media with letters and protests, indicates the type of reasoning behind the local ALP clique. If they have not got the numbers in the Assembly, they are going to use the machinery at their disposal to try to influence the media.
To continue the catalogue, Mr Speaker, the Government has failed to put together a legislative program that gave priority to a number of its election promises. I have already mentioned planning, but other matters - workers compensation, for instance, a matter coming from its own ethos - have not progressed, despite the recommendations, the series of reports and reviews in recent years which could have led to decisive action after July this year.
Consumer protection legislation has not been introduced. A price watch network disappeared from the rhetoric. Also the Government moved to collect revenue by stealth. Mr Speaker, along with the grass, pay parking machines and meters have sprung up in suburban shopping centres without prior surveys of shopkeepers or users. The revenue implications have not been spelt out and we have not seen a clean balance sheet of the direct and indirect costs of maintaining a large parking inspectorate - vehicles, radio based collection activity, purchase and erection and installation of parking machinery and capital works relevant thereto.
Was anyone asked whether they would be willing to pay $5 a year more on their vehicle registration? Was any survey carried out to see whether street parking could be banned entirely in the city area and pay parking better regulated? Mr Speaker, significantly, and in the area of honest government, how was it that Mr Duby and I, who sat on the
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