Page 1157 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 3 April 1990
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Tuesday, 3 April 1990
_____________________
MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS
Motion (by Mr Humphries) agreed to:
That so much of standing orders be suspended as would allow the Leader of Opposition speaking for a period of time not exceeding 41 minutes.
BUDGET STRATEGY STATEMENT
Ministerial Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 29 March 1990, on motion by Mr Kaine:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (10.32): I thank the Assembly for giving me the opportunity to respond. Mr Speaker, the statement made by the Chief Minister last Thursday was one which all Canberra had waited for with great anticipation. This was, after all, to be a momentous occasion - a statement so important that it was the first initiative announced by the Chief Minister when he outlined his Government's objectives and program in this Assembly on 7 December 1989.
At that time we heard talk of "a comprehensive five-year financial plan, clearly spelling out to the community the Government's priorities and intentions"; talk of an economic strategy. But I would ask, Mr Speaker, what has this Government given to the people of Canberra? No more do we hear talk of comprehensive financial plans. In fact, the closest we have come to a five-year analysis is the standard three-year forward estimates - estimates necessarily based on a no-change scenario.
The statement that Mr Kaine has presented to the people of Canberra is a thinly-veiled ideological attack on the public sector. It is an attack on the lifestyle of the people of Canberra. What we are looking at is across the board budget cuts. The Chief Minister said, "No sector of government operations is being spared".
Mr Kaine's statement leaves no doubt that the so-called "Alliance" is in fact an ultra-conservative, capital "L" Liberal Government. Where is the Rally's call in 1989 for
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