Page 4445 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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officer, the organisational framework, the management administration and operation of services, and, very late in the piece, improved community liaison and driver attitude education. But nowhere in there is there an actual indication of the result that we expect to get for the community for that $54m. I believe that the community does deserve an opportunity to have a say about some of those things. It is their $54m, after all, and Mr Collaery cannot avoid taking responsibility for the fact that no such opportunity has been given.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.59): Mr Speaker, I think that there is need for some clarification on the basis of what the Leader of the Opposition has said about this money. In this first transition year of the transfer of responsibility for policing to the ACT, the Commonwealth determined what, in its view, was a reasonable sum to continue to provide the same level of services it had provided in the past, and that figure is the $54m that appears there. For the Leader of the Opposition to argue that the community should be consulted on what that money should be spent on is, of course, quite absurd, because it was provided on the basis that there would be a level of service provided during this current year.
As to future years, that will depend absolutely on the outcome of the inquiry by the Grants Commission, which will make a determination in March as to the quantum of service provided by police. It will make some judgment about the $54m - whether it is enough, too much, not enough or exactly right - and out of that will emerge a figure that will be added to our budget base by the Commonwealth in future years. I think that it is a bit much for the Leader of the Opposition to expect that we can predict for future years what the Commonwealth Grants Commission might or might not decide.
Either the Leader of the Opposition does not want to know the basis on which the $54m was transferred and what will happen in future years or she chooses to misrepresent it, and I wish she would make up her mind quite what she wants. Does she want to have a bipartisan approach for the delivery of police services in the ACT, or does she want to sit on the fence and do nothing but criticise? I suspect that she wants to sit on the fence and criticise, Mr Speaker.
MR CONNOLLY (5.01): Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister seems to misunderstand fundamentally the criticism that is being made from this side of the house. It is not a question of how much money the Commonwealth should give us, has given us this year or will give us next year for the police service. It is not how much we will get when we go cap in hand to the Grants Commission. The question is: How much should this community be spending on police? What level of resources does this community want allocated to provide an adequate and appropriate level of policing?
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