Page 223 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
were from Mr Berry and Mrs Grassby who were deserted by their Leader and their deputy leader, were nothing but carping complaints which showed that they had even less understanding of economic and budgetary matters than their Leader and shadow treasurer - with emphasis on the shadow rather than the treasurer.
In contradistinction to the uninformed, incompetent approach by the former Labor Executive to the situation in which we find ourselves as a community, the economic and financial policies of the Alliance Government are directed to the future growth and well-being of the Canberra community. We would welcome a positive debate on these issues which are of fundamental concern to this community. Of course we will not get that and the shadow's comments so far confirm that. The motion put forward does not seek a positive debate but reflects the Opposition's sole interest in political point scoring.
No informed debate on economic and financial issues critical to the ACT community can occur in the absence of sufficient information on the state of ACT finances or on the impact of changes to Commonwealth funding to the ACT. Of course, the Opposition is not interested in the facts. Commonwealth funding to the States has been reduced in real terms over a period of five years. The smaller States and the Northern Territory have experienced a reduced share of this reduced real level of Commonwealth funding.
In its third report in 1988 on financing the ACT, the Commonwealth Grants Commission found that the ACT was substantially overfunded by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Minister for Finance, Senator Walsh, representing the Federal Labor Government, has said that he believes that the extent of overfunding has increased to $100m annually. Those are his figures, not mine.
The Government is committed to pursuing with the Commonwealth an equitable transition of ACT finances to Commonwealth-State financial relations and an equitable resolution of outstanding financial issues. The ACT, however, simply cannot expect to be isolated from the financial restraints facing all levels of Government.
The consequences of further deferring actions to achieve economies will be even greater leading to more disruptive adjustments in future years. Absolutely nothing has been done to address this problem during the first two years of the transition period. The Labor Government at the Federal level, who still administered Canberra during the first year of the so-called transition period, did nothing. The local Labor Government in their budget in the second year of this transition period, did nothing. We are now forced to face up to it in this third and last year of that transition period.
We simply must alert the community to the seriousness of the financial pressures facing the ACT community. Hiding
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .