Page 3016 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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borrowing potential - and a further $4.1m of extra borrowings was not required, simply due to this amount having been carried forward from the previous year.
It is clearly set out in the budget papers that ACT semi-government borrowings for 1988-89 were $25m, whilst $28m was proposed for 1989-90. Even though this is some $10.8m below the level which the Commonwealth will allow the ACT to borrow, it is an increase of 14.8 per cent on last year's borrowings, despite the Chief Minister's claim. For the Chief Minister to claim that her Government had decided to reduce its borrowings by $10.8m was clearly and bluntly misleading.
The Government has neglected to make rational decisions on reducing government expenditure, decisions which would have achieved efficient and effective government and which would have eliminated duplication and waste without affecting those who actually deliver services to the community - the teachers and the nurses. Yet, in the budget, that is where the impact has fallen - on the teachers and the nurses.
On the revenue side of the budget, greater attention needed to be given to expanding the revenue base by encouraging development and diversifying the sources of revenue in the ACT. The Government has failed in this, too. What this minority Labor Government has failed to grasp is that the Commonwealth Government is no longer a big spender in the ACT. One needs only to look at the capital works budget for this year to verify that. A diverse and effective private sector in the ACT is absolutely necessary if we are to maintain our standard of living and provide jobs for all ACT citizens and to effectively expand our revenue base.
Yet this Government has made only token contributions to encouraging growth in the private sector. On the other hand, it did not lose any time in seeking to collect an additional $40m or so in taxes and charges from those same businesses - a major disincentive to the business confidence and growth that we should be encouraging.
An example of this lack of financial sensitivity was land tax, an impost which the business community has to carry. The amount collected from this tax last year was $6.9m; it is expected this year to be $12.9m, almost double last year's figure. Payroll tax is another area in which the Government has seen private enterprise, particularly small business, as a bottomless well from which seemingly unlimited taxes can be extracted. Even the ordinary taxpayer, despite assurances that individual land rates and charges would not be increased, has faced substantial real increases. In short, Mr Speaker, the Government has failed abjectly either to face resolutely the preparation of an effective budget or to manage it.
In the area of planning and development the Government has simply abrogated its responsibility. It is a major economic issue for the ACT, and all the Government has been
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