Page 3244 - Week 11 - Thursday, 13 September 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I also note that the Treasurer announced in his budget speech the establishment of a rental bond trust. I am happy that this Government has finally come to the same decision that we did in government some 12 months ago. As all members know, however, the Labor Party has proceeded with the legislation it promised last year and we introduced it yesterday. I do hope that the Government will behave with some respectability and allow our Bills to proceed so that these worthy schemes can be introduced as a matter of priority.
We also welcome the Government's decision again to allocate funds for the establishment of a 24-hour mental health service. It has been a great disappointment to us that this important project, which was included in last year's budget, has been delayed because of the ineptitude of this lazy Government.
It is also worth congratulating the Government for its decision to allocate funds again for an additional domestic violence refuge. It has been a great disappointment to me that the Minister has been more interested in playing politics over this important issue than in simply getting on with the job. I sincerely hope that the Minister actually gets around to spending this money and establishes the refuge. The community will not judge him well if he continues to fail in this area.
Finally on their so-called new policy proposals, the Government should also be congratulated for continuing the commitments made by our Government last year to construct the Tuggeranong community centre and the Parkes-Barton child care centre. As I said earlier, the Government will find no disagreement from the Labor Party on the implementation of such measures, particularly given that they are our policy and were funded in our budget last year.
There is, however, one new policy proposal which we do have concerns with, and that is the expenditure of $2m on the Civic pool. While we welcome the Alliance Government's continuation of our commitment to the Civic pool, we are unable to understand why its cost has doubled over the past 10 months since we examined the proposal. The community must also doubt the wisdom of allocating such a large sum to this proposal, especially at a time when seven schools are being closed for alleged savings of, at most, about the same magnitude.
I must say, however, that I am concerned about the method by which the ongoing funding of these measures - the new policy proposals - will be achieved. As we all know, they are to be funded as a result of the winding-up of the Community Development Fund, and that is an issue which I discussed earlier. The aim is to utilise the difference between what has been the ongoing expenditure and receipts from the CDF. It does appear, however, that this sleight
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .