Page 3036 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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This Government has approached its task with commitment and vigour and takes full responsibility for the way the ACT has been managed over the past eight months. We have provided a level of stability and responsibility in government that has surprised our detractors and clearly disappointed the opposition. We have provided the people of the ACT with a voice in decisions which affect their daily lives and, importantly, the future of this Territory.
We are proud of our achievements in our first eight months. We hold our heads high and apologise to no-one. For my own part, I have dedicated myself and my agencies to a vision of what this Territory can become. We have pursued our primary objective of responsible, sustainable economic development in the context of the Government's commitment to social justice and environmental protection. We have taken real steps toward achieving a more stable and diverse Territory economy - that is, one that can offer jobs and lifestyles which meet the high expectations of the ACT community into the coming decade and indeed into the next century.
My portfolio of Industry, Employment and Education is a large and diverse one. It embraces functions which are vitally important to ACT citizens. Indeed, the portfolio is the engine-room of economic change. It encompasses a wide range of functions which have a direct bearing on the continued development of the Territory as a place in which to live, learn, work and do business.
We have sought the involvement of the ACT community in all aspects of government, not because it is fashionable or politically expedient, but because we genuinely believe that all citizens have something to offer. Our appointments to boards and advisory committees have been based on the principles of social justice and on seeking talent and commitment from all levels in the community. Some of these people have come from the natural constituency of our political opponents. Indeed, some are members and supporters of other political parties.
Our approach to industrial and economic development has been based on seeking to maximise the long-term welfare of the entire ACT community, to provide jobs and income for the community, to provide an economy which will serve the needs of not only today's but also tomorrow's citizens and job seekers. It has not been, as is sometimes suggested, a matter of serving vested interests.
Some of our opponents, indeed many of the would-be members of an alternative government, simply do not understand the role of the private sector. They would have us believe that government simply pronounces what will be and the private sector follows. They do not understand that investments are made and jobs created on the basis of confidence in expected returns. They believe that government can milk the private sector with high land prices, high taxes, arbitrary limits on leases or any other
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