Page 3096 - Week 14 - Thursday, 7 December 1989
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meantime, we will insist that the Commonwealth Government maintain, in real terms, its current levels of financial input into the Territory.
We will negotiate for similar financial support, in the longer term, to enable the achievement of a balanced budget without disrupting the ACT economy within a reasonable time period. Our present revenue shortfall is a direct result of previous Commonwealth decision making. However, the Commonwealth has committed itself to assist for five years while we sort it out. We see the five years beginning on self-government day, not some arbitrary prior date, and will negotiate with the Commonwealth on that basis.
We will develop annual budgets derived from the five-year plan, designed to meet identified community needs in priority order and tailored to ensure that we spend only the money that is available. If the community is satisfied with the priorities reflected in the plan, it can be confident those same priorities will govern the derived annual budgets.
The objective is that, by careful planning, achieving efficiencies in operations, and exercising rigorous cost control, we will achieve a balanced budget. This objective may not be achievable, however, in the short term, as the outcome of this current year's budget has already been substantially determined by the previous Government.
We will improve the overall efficiency in the delivery of government services by ensuring that the administration is lean and cost-effective. In achieving this, the Government will depend strongly on the members of the ACT Administration and will rely on their special skills, knowledge and dedication to put our policies into effect.
I refute most strongly, Mr Speaker, the destabilising rumours recently put about that this Government intends to either sack its employees or disrupt the public sector through major reorganisations. We will not. On the contrary, we will depend on their expertise to help build a lean and cost-effective public service with a reputation for excellence.
We will introduce a new management philosophy into the ACT Administration aimed at, firstly, lifting morale; secondly, emphasising the role our public employees play in achieving the ACT's financial objectives; and, thirdly, improving awareness of cost consciousness in these hard economic times that we currently face.
We will transfer to the private sector the responsibility for providing services which can be delivered more efficiently by that sector and where this will lead to a net saving without a reduction in the level of service provided. We will adopt a positive cost recovery policy, but will grant exemptions where justified on social, hardship or other compelling grounds.
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