Page 224 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
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our heads in the sand like the Opposition seems to want to do, does not do it. The Opposition's 1989-90 budget speech to the Assembly on 26 September 1989 - Ms Follett's speech - emphasised that the ACT will have to pay on the same basis as other Australians for the normal range of state and municipal services.
Ms Follett also emphasised that many of the assets of the ACT that have been inherited from the Commonwealth are run down or will impose additional costs on the ACT in future years. These statements imply that some action is needed. They cannot simply lie on the table as statements. You, the then Government, did nothing. As a community we have to accept that we have to live within our means. There are absolutely no alternatives to this inescapable fact.
The Government is committed to achieving this with minimal disruption, at the same time ensuring that the disadvantaged groups in the community are protected. As commented on in the Canberra Times editorial yesterday, and I quote:
If the process of making the economies is too much delayed, the problems are obviously going to become a lot worse.
The reality is that some functions are going to be substantially changed. It is obvious, for instance, that we cannot afford to maintain services that are duplicated or are inefficient. One of the major problems is the current hospital system which we have inherited from the Commonwealth and about which Mr Berry talked a lot but did nothing.
Many of the problems of duplication and inefficiencies reflect a long history of past administration and planning decisions by governments that were not accountable to the ACT and looked to national policies rather than local ones. The ACT state and local government-type services were low priority. The result is services that do not necessarily meet local needs and which are beyond the local community's financial capacity to support. In some cases there are simply unacceptably low standards of service delivery - I refer here to welfare about which my colleague Mr Collaery will talk later. We have to seek to restructure our community services and not simply provide for a death by a thousand cuts approach.
This Government, unlike its predecessor, has a clearly documented policy dealing with both finance and taxation matters to address the financial situation facing the ACT community. This Government will focus on two major areas - the economic well-being of the Territory and the vision the Government has for the ACT's future. To this end the Alliance policy on finance and taxation sets out three principal aims. They are: to create a cost-effective administration; to streamline the administration to minimise the cost of Government to the taxpayer; and to
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